earlyMYCO – a mother & child pilot study to assess early-life exposure to mycotoxins in Portugal

Early-life exposure occurs during gestation through transfer of toxic substances present in the maternal diet to the fetus and later during lactation, through the breast milk. Mycotoxins are well known carcinogenic, nephrotoxic, hepatotoxic, and immunosuppressive food chemical contaminants. Recently, human biomonitoring data revealed that Portuguese population is exposed to mycotoxins. These results emphasized the need for assessing the prenatal and lactation exposure to mycotoxins in a vulnerable period of life. The earlyMYCO project (PTDC/MED-TOX/28762/2017) aimed, for the first time, to develop and implement a pilot study to assess the early-life exposure to mycotoxins through a mother & child cohort, and to identify the associated challenges, thus contributing to the development of future studies and to the knowledge of the exposome of Portuguese population. Participants were recruited in primary health care units in Lisbon (Portugal) during pregnancy (1st trimester) and followed-up in three moments of observation: 2nd trimester of pregnancy (mother), and 1st and 6th months of the child’s life (mother & child), with the collection of biological samples (blood, urine, breast milk) and the application of sociodemographic and food consumption questionnaires (food frequency and 24h dietary recall). All the participants of the earlyMYCO pilot study (n = 19) reported more than nine years of education, with 37% reporting 10- 12 years and 63% reporting more than 12 years. Regarding the household monthly income, 42% reported a monthly income above 1941€, with most of participants (95%) being workers for remuneration or profit. Dairy products, bread, tea, and coffee were reported as the food items with higher frequency of consumption. The 24h dietary recall questionnaires confirmed these results. Detailed analysis of the data gathered allowed also to highlight the high consumption of meat, fish and vegetables. Regarding infants, 22% were fed with infant formula and 78% were exclusively breastfed. It is expected that results obtained within earlyMYCO pilot study will contribute to a deeper knowledge on exposure of vulnerable population groups (pregnant women and infants) and to the understanding of the impact of early-life exposure to mycotoxins.The earlyMYCO was funded by Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/MED-TOX/28762/2017), by CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020).N/