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Ebner JN. Trends in the Application of "Omics" to Ecotoxicology and Stress Ecology. Genes (Basel) 2021; 12:1481. [PMID: 34680873 PMCID: PMC8535992 DOI: 10.3390/genes12101481] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2021] [Revised: 09/12/2021] [Accepted: 09/16/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Our ability to predict and assess how environmental changes such as pollution and climate change affect components of the Earth's biome is of paramount importance. This need positioned the fields of ecotoxicology and stress ecology at the center of environmental monitoring efforts. Advances in these interdisciplinary fields depend not only on conceptual leaps but also on technological advances and data integration. High-throughput "omics" technologies enabled the measurement of molecular changes at virtually all levels of an organism's biological organization and thus continue to influence how the impacts of stressors are understood. This bibliometric review describes literature trends (2000-2020) that indicate that more different stressors than species are studied each year but that only a few stressors have been studied in more than two phyla. At the same time, the molecular responses of a diverse set of non-model species have been investigated, but cross-species comparisons are still rare. While transcriptomics studies dominated until 2016, a shift towards proteomics and multiomics studies is apparent. There is now a wealth of data at functional omics levels from many phylogenetically diverse species. This review, therefore, addresses the question of how to integrate omics information across species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua Niklas Ebner
- Spring Ecology Research Group, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
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Svingen T, Villeneuve DL, Knapen D, Panagiotou EM, Draskau MK, Damdimopoulou P, O'Brien JM. A pragmatic approach to Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) development and evaluation. Toxicol Sci 2021; 184:183-190. [PMID: 34534351 PMCID: PMC8633887 DOI: 10.1093/toxsci/kfab113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The adverse outcome pathway (AOP) framework provides a practical means for organizing scientific knowledge that can be used to infer cause-effect relationships between stressor events and toxicity outcomes in intact organisms. It has reached wide acceptance as a tool to aid chemical safety assessment and regulatory toxicology by supporting a systematic way of predicting adverse health outcomes based on accumulated mechanistic knowledge. A major challenge for broader application of the AOP concept in regulatory toxicology, however, has been developing robust AOPs to a level where they are peer reviewed and accepted. This is because the amount of work required to substantiate the modular units of a complete AOP is considerable, to the point where it can take years from start to finish. To help alleviate this bottleneck, we propose a more pragmatic approach to AOP development whereby the focus becomes on smaller blocks. First, we argue that the key event relationship (KER) should be formally recognized as the core building block of knowledge assembly within the AOP knowledge base (AOP-KB), albeit framing them within full AOPs to ensure regulatory utility. Second, we argue that KERs should be developed using systematic review approaches, but only in cases where the underlying concept does not build on what is considered canonical knowledge. In cases where knowledge is considered canonical, rigorous systematic review approaches should not be required. It is our hope that these approaches will contribute to increasing the pace at which the AOP-KB is populated with AOPs with utility for chemical safety assessors and regulators.
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Affiliation(s)
- Terje Svingen
- Division of Diet, Disease Prevention and Toxicology, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs, Lyngby, DK, 2800, Denmark
| | - Daniel L Villeneuve
- United States Environmental Protection Agency, Great Lakes Toxicology and Ecology Division, Duluth, MN, USA
| | - Dries Knapen
- Zebrafishlab, Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, 2610, Belgium
| | - Eleftheria Maria Panagiotou
- Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, 14186, Sweden
| | - Monica Kam Draskau
- Division of Diet, Disease Prevention and Toxicology, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs, Lyngby, DK, 2800, Denmark
| | - Pauliina Damdimopoulou
- Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, 14186, Sweden
| | - Jason M O'Brien
- Ecotoxicology and Wildlife Health Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada
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Arnesdotter E, Spinu N, Firman J, Ebbrell D, Cronin MTD, Vanhaecke T, Vinken M. Derivation, characterisation and analysis of an adverse outcome pathway network for human hepatotoxicity. Toxicology 2021; 459:152856. [PMID: 34252478 DOI: 10.1016/j.tox.2021.152856] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2021] [Revised: 06/17/2021] [Accepted: 07/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) and their networks are important tools for the development of mechanistically based non-animal testing approaches, such as in vitro and/or in silico assays, to assess toxicity induced by chemicals. In the present study, an AOP network connecting 14 linear AOPs related to human hepatotoxicity, currently available in the AOP-Wiki, was derived according to established criteria. The derived AOP network was characterised and analysed with regard to its structure and topological features. In-depth analysis of the AOP network showed that cell injury/death, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and accumulation of fatty acids are the most highly connected and central key events. Consequently, these key events may be considered as the rational and mechanistically anchored basis for selecting, developing and/optimising in vitro and/or in silico assays to predict hepatotoxicity induced by chemicals in view of animal-free hazard identification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emma Arnesdotter
- Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 103, 1090, Jette, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Nicoleta Spinu
- School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK.
| | - James Firman
- School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK.
| | - David Ebbrell
- School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK.
| | - Mark T D Cronin
- School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK.
| | - Tamara Vanhaecke
- Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 103, 1090, Jette, Brussels, Belgium.
| | - Mathieu Vinken
- Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 103, 1090, Jette, Brussels, Belgium.
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Whaley P, Edwards SW, Kraft A, Nyhan K, Shapiro A, Watford S, Wattam S, Wolffe T, Angrish M. Knowledge Organization Systems for Systematic Chemical Assessments. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 2020; 128:125001. [PMID: 33356525 PMCID: PMC7759237 DOI: 10.1289/ehp6994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2020] [Revised: 12/02/2020] [Accepted: 12/04/2020] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Although the implementation of systematic review and evidence mapping methods stands to improve the transparency and accuracy of chemical assessments, they also accentuate the challenges that assessors face in ensuring they have located and included all the evidence that is relevant to evaluating the potential health effects an exposure might be causing. This challenge of information retrieval can be characterized in terms of "semantic" and "conceptual" factors that render chemical assessments vulnerable to the streetlight effect. OBJECTIVES This commentary presents how controlled vocabularies, thesauruses, and ontologies contribute to overcoming the streetlight effect in information retrieval, making up the key components of Knowledge Organization Systems (KOSs) that enable more systematic access to assessment-relevant information than is currently achievable. The concept of Adverse Outcome Pathways is used to illustrate what a general KOS for use in chemical assessment could look like. DISCUSSION Ontologies are an underexploited element of effective knowledge organization in the environmental health sciences. Agreeing on and implementing ontologies in chemical assessment is a complex but tractable process with four fundamental steps. Successful implementation of ontologies would not only make currently fragmented information about health risks from chemical exposures vastly more accessible, it could ultimately enable computational methods for chemical assessment that can take advantage of the full richness of data described in natural language in primary studies. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP6994.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Whaley
- Evidence Based Toxicology Collaboration, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
| | - Stephen W. Edwards
- GenOmics, Bioinformatics, and Translational Research Center, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA
| | - Andrew Kraft
- Chemical Pollutant Assessment Division, Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), Washington, DC, USA
| | - Kate Nyhan
- Environmental Health Sciences, Yale School of Public Health and Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
| | - Andrew Shapiro
- Chemical Pollutant Assessment Division, Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), Washington, DC, USA
| | - Sean Watford
- National Center for Computational Toxicology, U.S. EPA, Durham, North Carolina, USA
| | - Steve Wattam
- WAP Academy Consultancy Ltd, Thirsk, Yorkshire, UK
| | - Taylor Wolffe
- Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
| | - Michelle Angrish
- Chemical Pollutant Assessment Division, Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, U.S. EPA, Durham, North Carolina, USA
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