Formation and Identification of Six Amino Acid - Acrylamide Adducts and Their Cytotoxicity Toward Gastrointestinal Cell Lines

Dan Li; Fangfang Xian; Juanying Ou; Kaiyu Jiang; Jie Zheng; Shiyi Ou; Fu Liu; Qinchun Rao; Caihuan Huang

doi:10.3389/fnut.2022.902040

Formation and Identification of Six Amino Acid - Acrylamide Adducts and Their Cytotoxicity Toward Gastrointestinal Cell Lines

Front Nutr. 2022 May 20:9:902040. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.902040. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Dan Li¹, Fangfang Xian¹, Juanying Ou^{2

3}, Kaiyu Jiang¹, Jie Zheng^{1

3}, Shiyi Ou^{1

3}, Fu Liu^{1

3}, Qinchun Rao⁴, Caihuan Huang^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Food Science and Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.
² Institute of Food Safety & Nutrition, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.
³ Guangdong-Hong Kong Joint Innovation Platform for the Safety of Bakery Products, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, United States.

Abstract

Acrylamide (AA) is a food contaminant, and amino acids are suggested to mitigate its toxicity by forming adducts. The emergence of acrylamide adducts may cause underestimation of acrylamide exposure level as well as trigger new safety problems. Based on the acrylamide elimination capability of four amino acids, this study chemically synthesized six amino acid-acrylamide adducts. Their structures were analyzed, followed by content determination in 10 commercially baking foods. The Michael adduct formed by one molecule of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and acrylamide was most abundant in foods among six adducts. Furthermore, it markedly decreased the cytotoxicity of acrylamide in Caco-2 cells and GES-1 cells. This finding suggests that amino acids can be used to reduce acrylamide level in processed foods and mitigate its hazardous effects after intake.

Keywords: acrylamide; adduct; amino acid; cytotoxicity; elimination mechanism.