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A Rat Liver Transcriptomic Point of Departure Predicts a Prospective Liver or Non-liver Apical Point of Departure.

ABSTRACT: Identifying a toxicity point of departure (POD) is a required step in human health risk characterization of crop protection molecules, and this POD has historically been derived from apical endpoints across a battery of animal-based toxicology studies. Using rat transcriptome and apical data for 79 molecules obtained from Open TG-GATES (Toxicogenomics Project-Genomics Assisted Toxicity Evaluation System) (632 datasets), the hypothesis was tested that a short-term exposure, transcriptome-based liver biological effect POD (BEPOD) could estimate a longer-term exposure "systemic" apical endpoint POD. Apical endpoints considered were body weight, clinical observation, kidney weight and histopathology and liver weight and histopathology. A BMDExpress algorithm using Gene Ontology Biological Process gene sets was optimized to derive a liver BEPOD most predictive of a systemic apical POD. Liver BEPODs were stable from 3 h to 29 days of exposure; the median fold difference of the 29-day BEPOD to BEPODs from earlier time points was approximately 1 (range: 0.7-1.1). Strong positive correlation (Pearson R = 0.86) and predictive accuracy (root mean square difference = 0.41) were observed between a concurrent (29 days) liver BEPOD and the systemic apical POD. Similar Pearson R and root mean square difference values were observed for comparisons between a 29-day systemic apical POD and liver BEPODs derived from 3 h to 15 days of exposure. These data across 79 molecules suggest that a longer-term exposure study apical POD from liver and non-liver compartments can be estimated using a liver BEPOD derived from an acute or subacute exposure study.

SUBMITTER: Johnson KJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7357187 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:The number of legacy chemicals without toxicity reference values combined with the rate of new chemical development are overwhelming the capacity of the traditional risk assessment paradigm. More efficient approaches are needed to quantitatively estimate chemical risks. In this study, rats were dosed orally with multiple doses of six chemicals for 5 days, 2, 4, and 13 weeks. Target organs were analyzed for traditional histological and organ weight changes and transcriptional changes using microarrays. Histological and organ weight changes in this study and the tumor incidences in the original cancer bioassays were analyzed using benchmark dose (BMD) methods to identify noncancer and cancer points-of-departure. The dose-response changes in gene expression were also analyzed using BMD methods and the responses grouped based on signaling pathways. A comparison of transcriptional BMD values for the most sensitive pathway with BMD values for the noncancer and cancer apical endpoints showed a high degree of correlation at all time points. When the analysis included data from an earlier study with 8 additional chemicals, transcriptional BMD values for the most sensitive pathway were significantly correlated with noncancer (r = 0.827, p = 0.0031) and cancer-related (r = 0.940, p = 0.0002) BMD values at 13 weeks. The average ratio of apical-to-transcriptional BMD values was less than two suggesting that for the current chemicals, transcriptional perturbation did not occur at significantly lower doses than apical responses. Based on our results, we propose a practical framework for application of transcriptomic data to chemical risk assessment. Four to five week-old rats were exposed in dose-response and for multiple durations to 6 chemicals. The chemicals were 1,2,4-tribromobenzene (CAS No. 615-54-3), 2,3,4,6-tetrachlorophenol (CAS No. 58-90-2), bromobenzene (CAS No. 108-86-1), 4,4'-methylenebis(N,N-dimethyl)benzenamine (CAS No. 101-61-1), hydrazobenzene (CAS No. 122-66-7), N-nitrosodiphenylamine (CAS No. 86-30-6). For 1,2,4-tribromobenzene and 2,3,4,6-tetrachlorophenol, male Sprague Dawley (Rat/Crl:CD(SD)) rats were used. For bromobenzene and hydroazobenzene, male F344/DuCrl rats were used. For 4,4'-methylenebis(N,N-dimethyl)benzenamine and N-nitrosodiphenylamine, female F344/DuCrl rats were used. The exposure durations were 5 days, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and 13 weeks. The dose and route of exposure are provided with the individual sample annotations. With each chemical treatment, a matched vehicle control group was run concurrently with the exposure. Gavage exposures were administered 7 days per week and feed exposures were provided 7 days per week. At the appropriate time point, animals were euthanized with a lethal intraperitoneal injection of sodium pentobarbital. For the liver, slices from each of the lobes were mixed together and used for microarray analysis. For the thyroid, the gland was transversely sectioned and the bottom portion was used for microarray analysis. For the bladder, the organ was longitudinally bisected, a slice was removed for histology and the remainder of the organ was minced and used for microarray analysis. Microarrays were run on five rats per dose per time point.

Project description:Current methods to support chemical hazard assessment face significant challenges given the rapidly growing number of compounds of emerging concern (CEC) requiring assessment. Standard testing strategies rely upon live animal testing, which are time-consuming, expensive, and ethically questionable. These concerns serve as an impetus to develop new approach methodologies (NAMs) that do not rely on live animal tests. This study explored the application of the molecular benchmark dose (BMD) approach in a 7-day embryo-larval fathead minnow (FHM) assay to derive determine transcriptomic points-of-departure (tPODs) which can be useds to predict apical BMDs of fluoxetine (FLX), a highly prescribed and potent selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor frequently detected in surface waters. Fertilized FHM embryos were exposed to graded concentrations of FLX (confirmed at <LOD, 0.19, 0.74, 3.38, 10.2, 47.5 µg/L) for 32 days. Subsets of fish were subjected to omics and locomotor analyses at 7 days post-fertilization (dpf) and to histological and biometric measurements at 32 dpf. Enrichment analyses of transcriptomics and proteomics data revealed significant perturbations in gene sets associated with serotonergic and axonal functions. BMD analysis resulted in tPOD values of 0.56 µg/L (median of the 20 most sensitive gene-level BMDs), 5.0 µg/L (tenth percentile of all gene-level BMDs), 7.51 µg/L (mode of the first peak of all gene-level BMDs) , and 5.66 µg/L (pathway-level BMD). These tPODs are protective of apical locomotor and reduced weight effects (LOEC of 10.2 µg/L) observed in this study and are well within the range of chronic apical BMDs of FLX reported in the literature. Furthermore, the distribution of gene-level BMDs followed a bimodal pattern, revealing disruption of sensitive neurotoxic pathways at low concentrations and metabolic pathway perturbations at higher concentrations. This is one of the first studies to derive tPODs for FLX using a short-term embryo assay at a life stage not considered to be a live animal under current legislations.

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A Rat Liver Transcriptomic Point of Departure Predicts a Prospective Liver or Non-liver Apical Point of Departure.

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