Mycotoxins
The Toxins Reported on a Mold Panel
A mycotoxin panel returns a list of compounds and a number beside each one. The number is the easy part. What decides its meaning is which toxin was detected, because the producing fungi, the realistic exposure routes and the organs affected differ sharply between them.
A raised ochratoxin A most often reflects coffee, wine and cereal intake. A detected macrocyclic trichothecene points at a water-damaged building. Those two findings call for entirely different responses, which is why the identity of the toxin carries more information than its concentration.
Ochratoxin A is a kidney-toxic mycotoxin produced by several Aspergillus and Penicillium species. It is the mycotoxin most often detected in human urine worldwide, and in most people the exposure is dietary rather than environmental. A raised result confirms exposure but does not, on its own, identify whether it came from food or from a water-damaged building.
Trichothecenes are a large family of protein synthesis inhibitors produced by several fungal genera. The distinction that matters clinically is between the macrocyclic trichothecenes, produced by Stachybotrys chartarum and strongly associated with water-damaged buildings, and the simpler Fusarium trichothecenes such as deoxynivalenol, which are a normal feature of cereal diets.
Gliotoxin is an immunosuppressive mycotoxin produced principally by Aspergillus fumigatus. It disables the oxidative burst that neutrophils use to kill invading organisms, which is why it functions as a virulence factor during infection. A positive result raises a question the other mycotoxins do not: whether the fungus is growing in the body rather than only in the building.
Aflatoxins are produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus, mainly on stored nuts, maize and spices. Aflatoxin B1 is the most potent naturally occurring liver carcinogen identified, and it is the only mycotoxin group the International Agency for Research on Cancer places in Group 1, carcinogenic to humans. Exposure is overwhelmingly dietary rather than environmental.
Zearalenone is a Fusarium mycotoxin that binds oestrogen receptors and behaves as a non-steroidal oestrogen. It is a cereal grain contaminant rather than an indoor mold product, and its significance lies in endocrine disruption rather than the organ toxicity that defines ochratoxin A or aflatoxin.
Citrinin is a kidney-toxic mycotoxin produced by several Penicillium, Aspergillus and Monascus species. It frequently appears alongside ochratoxin A because the producing fungi and the affected commodities overlap. Its most distinctive source is red yeast rice, a supplement in which the producing organism is deliberately cultured.
Holding a panel you cannot read?
The free lab report interpreter reads mycotoxin panels alongside ERMI and HERTSMI-2 building scores and the inflammatory markers used in biotoxin illness, and explains in plain language what each value indicates. The guide to mycotoxin urine testing covers what these panels can and cannot establish.