T-2 toxin metabolism and its hepatotoxicity: New insights on the molecular mechanism and detoxification

T-2 toxin, a type A trichothecene, is a secondary metabolite produced by Fusarium poae, Fusarium sporotrichioides, and Fusarium tricinctum. As the most toxic trichothecenes, T-2 toxin causes severe damage to multiple organs, especially to liver. However, the contamination of T-2 toxin covers a wide range of plants, including nuts, grains, fruits and herbs globally. And due to chemical stability of T-2 toxin, it is difficult to be completely removed from the food and feeds, which poses a great threat to human and animal health. Liver is the major detoxifying organ which also makes it the main target of T-2 toxin. After being absorbed by intestine, the first pass effect will reduce the level of T-2 toxin in blood indicating that liver is the main metabolic site of T-2 toxin in vivo. In this review, updated researches on the hepatotoxicity of T-2 toxin were summarized. The metabolic characteristic of T-2 toxin in vivo was introduced. The main hepatotoxic mechanisms of T-2 toxin are oxidative stress, mitochondrial damage, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) methylation, autophagy and apoptosis. The remission of the hepatotoxicity induced by T-2 toxin was also studied in this review followed by new findings on the detoxification of hepatotoxicity induced by T-2 toxin. The review aimed to offer a comprehensive view and proposes new perspectives in the field of hepatotoxicity induced by T-2 toxin. Liver, as the major detoxifying and metabolism organ, is the main target of T-2 toxin toxicity. The hepatotoxicity induced by T-2 toxin can cause histological alterations in cell structure, the loss of live function, energy metabolism disorder and bile acids metabolism disorder that involve the activation of oxidative stress, mitochondrial damage, abnormal DNA methylation, autophagy and apoptosis. The detoxifications of T-2 toxin induced hepatotoxicity are physical absorption, biological detoxification, nutrition intervention and multi-component detoxifying agents. [Display omitted] •T-2 toxin accumulates in liver and causes hepatotoxicity.•CYPs play an important role in metabolizing T-2 toxin into its derivatives.•T-2 toxin causes the disorder of liver energy metabolism and bile acids metabolism.•T-2 cause hepatic mitochondrial damage, DNA methylation, apoptosis, autophagy, etc.•Physical, microbial and nutrition intervention reduce hepatotoxicity of T-2 toxin.