Research Boosts Regulatory Efficiency

A new method developed by scientists at the Office of the Texas State Chemist, the state agency that regulates the distribution of feed and fertilizer in Texas, will reduce the cost of testing, improve sensitivity to toxin levels and speed up turnaround. The project to develop this new method was led by Dr. Wei Li, postdoctorial research associate at the Office of the Texas State Chemist, and will also help gain insight for future research into the mechanics of how fumonisin forms.

开发新方法

Fumonisin is regulated in corn because it can cause diseases in livestock and horses when ingested. The mold by-product is also a threat to human health. The International Agency for Research on Cancers has declared fumonisin B₁，，，，the most abundant form of the fumonisins, to be a group 2B carcinogen, or possibly carcinogenic to humans.

Considering their widespread prevalence and potential toxicities, fumonisin B₁(FB₁），烟丝B₂(FB₂) and fumonisin B₃(FB₃），在美国工业工业的食品和药物管理局（FDA）制定中，包括自然污染的玉米中发现的主要烟丝素。

联邦谷物检验服务（FGIS），其他谷物测试机构和行业使用快速测试，例如酶联免疫吸附测定法（ELISA），以评估谷物质量以促进商业。这些方法可以用饲料和食品安全调节机构用作筛查技术，这些调节机构依赖FDA开发的更敏感的方法或官方分析化学家国际（AOACI）的关联，例如薄层色谱（TLC）和高性能液相色谱（HPLC）目的是分配违规行为并采取监管行动。这些以后的方法是耗时且昂贵的。

高效液相色谱法涉及的一个最严重的问题d the cost of acetonitrile according to the director of the Office of the Texas State Chemist, Dr. Tim Herrman. The cost of this single reagent has increased in price over 10-fold and has been rationed, where back orders are common place for the past few years. The reagent is a by-product of the plastic manufacturing industry that has been impacted by a number of factors including the global recession.

In 2009 Li was hired to research and establish a fast and reproducible quantification method that would solve the office’s two main problems. He achieved this by reducing the sample extraction, derivitization and cleanup process and replacing the nearly $1,000 per case reagent with methanol, a more economical reagent which runs about $50 per case.

该方法涉及一个单一的提取步骤，然后进行离心和过滤，然后用超表现液相色谱/电喷雾电离倾斜量质谱法（UPLC/ESI/MS/MS）进行分析。此处开发的LC/MS/MS方法代表了少于30分钟的最快，最简单的过程，其吞吐量分析要比常规的HPLC方法和其他与固相萃取（SPE）清理有关的LC/MS方法更高。

赫尔曼（Herrman）解释了李的新方法的另一个优势。

“Li’s method includes running the isotope labeled internal standard with every sample in addition to creating a calibration curve and using a control at the beginning and end of each set. Running the isotope with every test increases the reproducibility of measuring fumonisins FB_1，FB₂和fb_3。。”

改进的提取方法和LC/MS/MS技术的应用将办公室的周转时间从两天内的24个样本中减少，其先前的测试方法在4小时内将24个样本减少到24个样本，从而提高了生产率4倍。他们现在还可以使用此提取进行多次分析，而旧方法则迫使他们一次运行一个样本。

研究社区的利益

尽管德克萨斯州化学家办公室目前正在使用Li的新方法用于监管目的，但Herrman表示，它将改善对Fumonisins感兴趣的德克萨斯A＆M其他人的研究活动。

赫尔曼说：“植物病理学家（和其他谷物质量研究人员）将受益于该方法对测量霉菌毒素的敏感性。”“我们使用很小的样品（与单个内核一样小）合作的能力也将具有价值。出于调节目的，我们使用了50克样品，因此它更具代表性材料，但是在研究应用中，使用较小的样品可以提供重要的结果。该研究是否与试图了解真菌生产毒素的机制有关，还是正在研究抗药性机制，它们将从Li的方法中受益。”

Future grain research will benefit from the improved sensitivity and level of detection (LOD) offered by mass spectrometry. Both the LOD and level of quantitation (LOQ) has improved 50 fold compared to HPLC. The improved sensitivity, the ability to test FB1, FB2 and FB3 simultaneously and quick turnaround of results will cut down on the time and expense researchers encounter when exploring new methods to control fumonisins.

Universities such as Iowa State University and Purdue with grain quality research initiatives may invest in the type of system Li invented in the years to come.

Grain companies benefit

德克萨斯州化学家办公室将甲醇作为新测试方法中的试剂大大降低了该测试的运营成本。采用新技术使办公室能够提供改进的服务，而无需为受监管的社区增加成本。

“By operating on or near the technology frontier through the adoption of new instrumentation, we can provide much better service at a lower cost,” says Herrman. “We have experienced a significant return on capital investment through the adoption of a technology strategy that ultimately reduces cost and enables the office to not raise tonnage fees that pay for the regulatory service we provide for consumers and agribusiness. We’ve been able to hold our tonnage rates steady for the past six years and I don’t anticipate that we will need to raise fees in the foreseeable future.”

他们还能够减少员工，同时设法增加监督和结果的可靠性，从而改善监管过程。

“Good regulation is good for everyone,” says Herrman. “I like to refer to it as the currency of confidence. As long as consumers have confidence in the marketplace and agribusiness has confidence that they are competing on a level playing field, commerce will happen. When people lose confidence in the safety or reliability of products, it impedes commerce. Poor regulatory oversight increases risk for industry, which in turn, may result in a firm’s decision not to invest or expand in a particular market.”

尽管在我们的行业中永远不会受到更多的监管，但改善进行监管的方法可以积极影响饲料和谷物利益相关者。

Through research, not only has the Office of the Texas State Chemist stopped using a very expensive reagent and cut costs, it has increased the reproducibility of results as well as level of detection and is an example of a regulatory body moving forward and making progress.