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Application of biomarkers in understanding environmental risk and determining adverse outcomes of chemical exposures using bivalve models
Citation:
Khan, B., K. Ho, AND R. Burgess. Application of biomarkers in understanding environmental risk and determining adverse outcomes of chemical exposures using bivalve models. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry North America 41st Annual Meeting, Virtual, Texas, November 15 - 19, 2020.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation summarizes the application of biological marker techniques in a predictive framework to understand adverse outcomes of chemical exposures using bivalve mollusks. The application of these marker techniques in understanding the risks of chemical exposures to the environment as well as human health can be enhanced by utilizing their linkages within a biological system. Such linkages also emphasize the importance of a multidisciplinary research platform for effective use of existing scientific tools and strategies to understand how new chemicals and materials are affecting our waterways, seafood industry and human health.
Description:
Biomarkers are measurable changes in a biological system indicative of an interaction with a chemical, physical, or biological agent. In a toxicological context, such changes can be molecular, biochemical, physiological, or histological and are reflective of either xenobiotic exposure or effects. Suborganismal biomarkers play a vital role in biomedical and human health research being valuable early warning signs of toxicity but their use in ecotoxicology and environmental risk assessment has been challenging. Limited number of examples are available where individual biomarker assessments can be linked to specific adverse outcomes of ecological relevance. This disconnect between biomarker research and ecotoxicological predictions limits accurate application of laboratory-based suborganismal assessments in the context of ecological health. This presentation will describe how biomarker linkages at different levels of biological organization can enhance their predictive value in ecological risk assessment via frameworks such as Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs). Integration of biomarker approaches is strengthened by evolutionary conservation of molecular targets and biochemical pathway similarities. Invertebrate models, such as bivalves, are currently underutilized in identifying these linkages and in extrapolating information from omics tools and taxa-read across approaches. Using case studies with aquatic bivalve models, we will present the value and challenges associated with suborganismal biomarker applications in toxicological assessments. Laboratory data from dissolved (pharmaceuticals) and particulate (nanomaterials) contaminant studies will be utilized to emphasize the importance of bivalve models in integrative approaches related to evaluation of adverse outcomes. Moreover, identification of linkages to adverse outcomes at individual and population level in ecosystem engineers, such as bivalves, is especially critical to ecosystem health concerns and well-being of other organisms including humans. Such considerations are imperative to integrated risk assessment approaches and are relevant to a holistic understanding of the connections between ecological and human health.
