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Linking Mechanistic Effects of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products to Ecologically Relevant Outcomes: A Decade of Progress
Citation:
Ankley, G., J. Berninger, E. Maloney, J. Olker, C. Schaupp, Dan Villeneuve, AND C. LaLone. Linking Mechanistic Effects of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products to Ecologically Relevant Outcomes: A Decade of Progress. ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Pensacola, FL, 43(3):537-548, (2024). https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.5416
Impact/Purpose:
Substantial concern exists for the potential ecological risks posed by the large number of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) that occur in, or may enter the environment. A significant challenge in assessing the risks of PPCPs is a lack to data concerning their potential toxicity to aquatic and terrestrial plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates. This paper describes how cost-effective new approach methods (NAMs) such as curated databases, computational models and short-term in vitro and in vivo assays can supply data useful to assessing potential hazards of data-poor PPCPs and, in conjunction with adverse outcome pathways (AOPs), can be used as a basis for predicting possible ecological risks. NAMs and AOPs specifically targeted to specific biological activities associated with PPCPs promise to significantly affect the ability of risk assessors/regulators to evaluate this large class of environmental contaminants.
Description:
There are insufficient toxicity data to assess the ecological risks of many pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). While data limitations are not uncommon for contaminants of environmental concern, PPCPs are somewhat unique in that an a priori understanding of their biological activities in conjunction with measurements of molecular, biochemical, or histological responses could provide a foundation for understanding mode(s) of action and predicting potential adverse apical effects. Over the past decade significant progress has been made in the development of new approach methodologies (NAMs) to efficiently quantify these types of endpoints using computational models and pathway-based in vitro and in vivo assays. The availability of open-access knowledgebases to curate biological response (including NAM) data and sophisticated bioinformatics tools to help interpret the information also has significantly increased. Finally, advances in the development and implementation of the adverse outcome pathway framework provide the critical conceptual underpinnings needed to translate NAM data into predictions of the ecologically relevant outcomes required by risk assessors and managers. The evolution and convergence of these various data streams, tools, and concepts provides the basis for a fundamental change in how ecological risks of PPCPs can be pragmatically assessed.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Linking Mechanistic Effects of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products to Ecologically Relevant Outcomes: A Decade of Progress
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35735070/