Transcriptomic and proteomic insights into patulin mycotoxin-induced cancer-like phenotypes in normal intestinal epithelial cells.

Patulin (PAT) is a natural contaminant of fruits (primarily apples) and their products. Significantly, high levels of contamination have been found in fruit juices all over the world. Several in vitro studies have demonstrated PAT's ability to alter intestinal structure and function. However, in real life, the probability of low dose long-term exposure to PAT to humans is significantly higher through contaminated food items. Thus, in the present study, we have exposed normal intestinal cells to non-toxic levels of PAT for 16 weeks and observed that PAT had the ability to cause cancer-like properties in normal intestinal epithelial cells after chronic exposure. Here, our results showed that chronic exposure to low doses of PAT caused enhanced proliferation, migration and invasion ability, and the capability to grow in soft agar (anchorage independence). Moreover, an in vivo study showed the appearance of colonic aberrant crypt foci (ACFs) in PAT-exposed Wistar rats, which are well, establish markers for early colon cancer. Furthermore, as these neoplastic changes are consequences of alterations at the molecular level, here, we combined next-generation RNA sequencing with liquid chromatography mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis to investigate the possible underlying mechanisms involved in PAT-induced neoplastic changes.