Urine metabolite analysis as a function of deoxynivalenol exposure: an NMR-based metabolomics investigation

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is a toxic fungal metabolite that frequently contaminates cereal crops including wheat, maize and barley. Despite knowledge of frequent exposure through diet, our understanding of the potential consequences of human exposure remains limited, in part due to the lack of validated exposure biomarkers. In this study, we interrogated the urinary metabolome using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to compare individuals with known low and high DON exposure through consumption of their normal diet. Urine samples from 22 adults from the UK (seven males, 15 females; age range = 21-59 years) had previously determined urinary DON levels using an established liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) assay. Urine samples were subsequently analysed using an NMR-based metabolomics approach coupled with multivariate statistical analysis. Metabolic profiling suggested that hippurate levels could be used to distinguish between groups with low (3.6 ng DON mg-1 creatinine: 95% CI = 2.6, 5.0 ng mg-1) and high (11.1 ng mg-1: 95% CI = 8.1, 15.5 ng mg-1) DON exposure, with the concentration of hippurate being significantly (1.5 times) higher for people with high DON exposure than for those with low DON exposure (p = 0.047). This, to our knowledge, is the first report of a metabolomics-derived biomarker of DON exposure in humans.