13 June 2007
Toxicity testing for the 21st century
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in a wide ranging review undertaken by the National Research Council [1], calls for a comprehensive evaluation of toxicity-testing methods and strategies for chemicals. The resultant Report recognises that a new toxicity-testing system, using a variety of innovative methods from computational biology and an array of comprehensive in vitro human-biology based approaches will, in the words of the Report’s authors:
“……generate more robust data on the potential risks to humans posed by exposure to environmental agents and [to] expand capabilities to test chemicals more efficiently. A stronger scientific foundation offers the prospect of improved risk-based regulatory decisions and possibly greater public confidence in and acceptance of the decisions.”
The Report, reviewing potential and emerging approaches to understanding cellular responses to toxic assault, adds:
“Advances in toxicogenomics, bioinformatics, systems biology, epigenetics, and computational toxicology could transform toxicity testing from a system based on whole-animal testing to one founded primarily on in vitro methods that evaluate changes in biologic processes using cells, cell lines, or cellular components, preferably of human origin.”
With such recognition of the immense potential that lies with in vitro and in silico techniques, the Report will also give a fresh impetus for new methods, based on components of human origin, to be applied in other areas of biology which currently rely on animal experiments.
Reference
1. The Committee on Toxicity and Assessment of Environmental Agents, National Research Council: Toxicity Testing in the Twenty-first Century: A Vision and a Strategy (2007). Hard copy and PDF version available at: http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11970