I-Corps: Silver Nanoparticles for Elimination of Fungal Toxins

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发一种安全的方法来减少食品中的黄曲霉毒素污染。黄曲霉毒素污染对人类和牲畜健康构成威胁。世界卫生组织估计，每年全世界25%或更多的农作物被黄曲霉毒素污染所摧毁。拟议的技术将支持粮食安全，帮助减少全球饥饿，并通过提供更多的安全食品来提高生活质量。这项技术将使作物不被浪费，从而带来经济效益。此外，这种环境友好的方法有可能减少或取代杀真菌剂和杀虫剂的使用，进一步造福环境。这个I-Corps项目是基于纳米技术的发展，已被证明可以显着减少真菌黄曲霉毒素的生物合成和排泄，使用非常低浓度的制造银纳米颗粒（NP）。研究表明，毒素产生的减少不是由于银离子，而是由于真菌中基于暴露于NP后活性氧物质产生减少的转录组水平变化。纳米真菌相互作用也可以基于NP物理化学性质的优化来调节，并且NP的大小和涂层都已显示出具有显著的效果。这项规定可能允许银纳米颗粒抑制由负责谷物，水果和蔬菜腐败的真菌产生黄曲霉毒素。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The broader impact /commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development a safe way to reduce aflatoxin contamination in food. Aflatoxin contamination is a risk to human and livestock health. The World Health Organization estimates that 25 percent or more of the world’s crops are destroyed by aflatoxin contamination annually. The proposed technology would support food security, help to reduce hunger worldwide, and improve quality of life by providing increased quantities of safe food. The technology would allow for crops to not be wasted, enabling economic benefits. In addition, this environmentally friendly method has the potential to reduce or replace fungicide and pesticide use, further benefitting the environment.This I-Corps project is based on the development of nanotechnology that has been shown to significantly reduce fungal aflatoxin biosynthesis and excretion, using very low concentrations of manufactured silver nanoparticles (NPs). Research has shown that the reduced toxin production is not due to the silver ion but rather by transcriptome-level changes in the fungi based on reduced production of reactive oxygen species after exposure to the NP. Nano-fungal interactions also may be regulated based on the optimization of NP physico-chemical properties, and both size and coating of the NPs have been shown to have a significant effect. This regulation may allow for silver NPs to inhibit aflatoxin production by fungi responsible for grain, fruit and vegetable spoilage.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.