Researchers believe aflatoxin causes up to 80 percent of liver cancer cases.
If successful, the approach could possibly help sequence other common carcinogens.
Here are six insights from their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:
1. Researchers exposed mice to a dose of aflatoxin four days after birth, causing them all to develop liver cancer. Researchers collected and sequenced DNA from tumors and liver cells 10 weeks after exposure and before tumor development.
2. Researchers employed a genome sequencing technique used to identify rare mutations. It combines two complementary strands of DNA and barcodes them, so researchers can later recombine their sequence information.
The technique is 1,000 to 10,000 times more accurate than traditional sequencing.
3. Researchers found at 10 weeks, a distinct mutation pattern for aflatoxin exposure emerges.
4. Aflatoxin producers mutations in guanine when cytosine flanked on both sides.
5. The researchers compared aflatoxin-exposed mice’s mutational profile to profiles from 300 patients around the world. The mice cells’ signature matched 13 patients from sub-Saharan Africa to Asia, who were exposed to aflatoxin in their diets.
6. The researchers are creating a blood test to search for the mutational profile.
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