In Guangdong Province of China, the climate is very wet, so there are many different fungi living in aquatic feeds, which produce mycotoxins. These compounds contaminate agricultural products worldwide and present a great threat to human health. It is necessary to determine their contamination level in aquatic feeds. A high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) method was developed for the quantitative analysis of aflatoxin B₁, aflatoxin M₁, T-2 toxin, HT-2 toxin, deoxynivalenol, ochratoxin, and zearalenone in fish and shrimp feed. Samples were extracted with acetonitrile–water (3+1, v/v), and degreased with acetonitrile-saturated hexane. The extract was cleaned up with a multitoxin column. The target compounds were separated on a C₁₈ chromatographic column and analyzed simultaneously by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry in both positive and negative ion mode. Detected compounds were quantified using the matrix-matched external standard method. Under the optimized conditions, good linearities for the analytes in the corresponding concentration range were obtained, with correlation coefficients (r²) higher than 0.9948. LODs ranged from 1.83 to 12.63 μg/kg, and LOQs ranged from 5.49 to 37.89 μg/kg. Average recoveries for the target mycotoxins at three spiked levels ranged from 80.5 to 116.5% with RSD ranging from 2.4 to 10.4%. Twenty-three real aquafeed samples were determined by this method, and seven kinds of toxins were detected. The results show that the developed method can be successfully applied for the simultaneous determination of mycotoxins in aquatic feeds. Multitoxin purification columns proved to be a powerful technique for determining seven mycotoxins simultaneously. This method ensured simple sample pretreatment and less operation time. The established method was successfully applied to the analysis of seven mycotoxins species in aquatic feeds.

As a common harmful pollutant, cadmium (Cd) can easily enter the human body through the food chain, posing a major threat to human health. Gut microbiota play a key role in Cd absorption. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is thought to have a potential role in the treatment of Cd poisoning. This study investigated the therapeutic effect and mechanism of DHA in Cd-exposed mice from the perspective of the gut microbiota. The results showed that DHA significantly increased the Cd content in feces and decreased the Cd accumulation in the organs of mice. The gut microbiota results showed that DHA significantly restored the abundance of Parabacteroides in the gut microbiota of Cd-exposed mice. Parabacteroides distasonis (P. distasonis), a representative strain of the Parabacteroides, also showed Cd- and toxicity-reduction capabilities. P. distasonis significantly restored the gut damage caused by Cd exposure. At the same time, P. distasonis reduced the Cd content in the liver, spleen, lung, kidneys, gut, and blood to varying degrees and significantly increased the Cd content in feces. The succinic acid produced by P. distasonis plays an important role in promoting Cd excretion in Cd-exposed mice. Therefore, these results suggest that P. distasonis may have a potential role in DHA-mediated Cd excretion in Cd-exposed mice.

Pickled cabbage, a traditional fermented food rich in functional microorganisms, can effectively control hyperuricemia and gout. In this study, a Priestia megaterium ASC-1 strain with strong uric acid (UA) degradation ability was isolated from pickled cabbage. After oral administration for 15 days, ASC-1 was stably colonized in the rats in this study. ASC-1 significantly reduced UA levels (67.24%) in hyperuricemic rats. Additionally, ASC-1 alleviated hyperuricemia-related inflammatory response, oxidative stress, and blood urea nitrogen. Intestinal microbial diversity results showed that ASC-1 restored intestinal injury and gut flora dysbiosis caused by hyperuricemia. These findings suggest that P. megaterium ASC-1 may be used as a therapeutic adjuvant for the treatment of hyperuricemia.

This contribution reports the syntheses, structural analyses and properties of europium (Eu³⁺)- and terbium (Tb³⁺)-based coordination complexes of poly(N-isopropyl,N-methylacrylamide-stat-N,N-dimethylacrylamide) (poly(iPMAm-stat-DMAm)) copolymer, named as poly-Eu(III) and poly-Tb(III), respectively. In greater detail, poly(iPMAm₈₅-stat-DMAm₁₅) is first prepared by random copolymerization of N-isopropyl,N-methylacrylamide (iPMAm) and N,N-dimethylacrylamide (DMAm) via group transfer polymerization (GTP). Next, poly(iPMAm₈₅-stat-DMAm₁₅) is used as the polymer matrix for chelating with Eu³⁺ and Tb³⁺ cations at its side amide groups, to produce poly-Eu(III) and poly-Tb(III). Their structural characterizations by FT-IR spectroscopy and XPS confirm the formation of polymeric complexes. The study on their fluorescence emission characteristics and luminescence lifetime demonstrates that Poly-Eu(III) shows four strong emission peaks at 578, 593, 622, and 651 nm, which are responsible for the electron transitions from the excited ⁵D₀ state to the multiplet ⁷F_J (J = 0, 1, 2, 3) states, respectively, and poly-Tb(III) also displays four emission peaks at 489, 545, 588, and 654 nm, mainly due to the electron transitions of ⁵D₄ → ⁷F_i (i = 6, 5, 4, 3). The luminescence lifetimes of poly-Eu(III) (τ_poly-Eu(III)) and poly-Tb(III) (τ_poly-Tb(III)) are determined to be 4.57 and 7.50 ms, respectively. In addition, in aqueous solutions, poly-Eu(III) and poly-Tb(III) are found to exhibit thermoresponsivity, with their cloud temperatures (T_cs) locating around 36.4 and 36.8 °C, respectively. Finally, the cytotoxicity study on the human colon carcinoma cells LoVo and DLD1 suggests that the luminescent Eu³⁺ and Tb³⁺ in the chelated state with poly(iPMAm-stat-DMAm) show much better biocompatibility and lower toxicity than their inorganic salts.

This study describes an effective matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) extraction method for determining norfloxacin (NOR) and ciprofloxacin (CIP) in chicken meat by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). The optimum conditions for separating NOR and CIP were as follows:60 cm×75 μm i.d. capillary, 40 mmol L⁻¹borate buffer solution (pH 8.5), separation voltage at 16 kV, and detection wavelength at 280 nm. Before CZE determination, the chicken meat samples were purified and enriched by using an MSPD extraction step with a preconditioned C₁₈cartridge and by eluting the compound with 3.0 mL of acetonitrile. A good linear fit curve with the concentration range of 0.10 μg g⁻¹to 500 μg g⁻¹for NOR and CIP was obtained, with regression coefficients of 0.9994 and 0.9986, respectively. The limits of detection of NOR and CIP were 0.04 and 0.03 μg g⁻¹, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to determine NOR and CIP in chicken meat.