Strickland P T, Groopman J D
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205.
Am J Clin Nutr. 1995 Mar;61(3 Suppl):710S-720S. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/61.3.710S.
The major sources of human exposure to environmental carcinogens are through inhalation, ingestion, and percutaneous absorption. Food-borne carcinogens constitute the primary source of ingested carcinogens. Epidemiological analyses indicate that 20-50% of all human cancer is due to dietary causes, unfortunately, few specific etiologic agents have been identified. The use of chemical-specific molecular biomarkers in studies of several classes of carcinogens to which humans are exposed through the ingestion of food may provide the necessary data to identify these etiologic agents. These molecular biological markers can be classified into several categories: markers of exposure reflecting dose of toxic agents, markers of effect indicating a biological response to an exposure, and markers of susceptibility providing information about the inherent sensitivity of an individual to the toxic agent. By definition some of these markers are chemical-agent specific, such as a carcinogen-DNA or carcinogen-protein adduct, whereas others are biological process-specific such as the altered expression of a gene. In the future, information obtained from studies of molecular biomarkers in humans and experimental animals can be used for a range of public health applications from primary and secondary prevention to the design of clinical therapies. Aflatoxins have been extensively studied with validated biomarkers, and, currently, dietary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and heterocyclic amines (HA) derived from cooking meats and other staples are being intensively investigated. This article reviews some of the recent information on aflatoxins and describes future potential of PAH and HA biomarkers.
人类接触环境致癌物的主要途径是吸入、摄入和经皮吸收。食源性致癌物是摄入致癌物的主要来源。流行病学分析表明，所有人类癌症中有20% - 50%是由饮食因素引起的，遗憾的是，几乎没有确定具体的病因。在几类通过食物摄入而使人类接触的致癌物研究中，使用化学特异性分子生物标志物可能会提供识别这些病因所需的数据。这些分子生物学标志物可分为几类：反映有毒物质剂量的接触标志物、表明对接触产生生物学反应的效应标志物以及提供个体对有毒物质固有敏感性信息的易感性标志物。根据定义，其中一些标志物是化学物质特异性的，如致癌物 - DNA或致癌物 - 蛋白质加合物，而其他一些则是生物过程特异性的，如基因表达改变。未来，从人类和实验动物分子生物标志物研究中获得的信息可用于一系列公共卫生应用，从一级和二级预防到临床治疗设计。黄曲霉毒素已通过经过验证的生物标志物进行了广泛研究，目前，来自烹饪肉类和其他主食的膳食多环芳烃（PAH）和杂环胺（HA）正在受到深入研究。本文回顾了一些关于黄曲霉毒素的最新信息，并描述了PAH和HA生物标志物的未来潜力。
