51st Annual Meeting & ToxExpo - Society of Toxicology

51 st Annual Meeting and ToxExpo
Continuing Education
Courses may also instruct attendees on regulatory requirements
for safety assessment of drugs and metabolites or novel approaches
for assessing pharmacodynamic effects. Course proposals under
the “Drug Metabolism” target area are expected to be in-depth and
focused on a central theme. As therfore, multiple proposals addressing
different aspects of this general theme are encouraged to ensure
adequate coverage of this rapidly advancing and important field.
Noncoding RNAs and Their Role in Biology and
Toxicology
Small, medium, and long noncoding RNAs have been identified
in many species, including humans. Their functions are still not
fully understood, but they are becoming increasingly recognized as
important factors in physiology, xenobiotic sensitivity, and disease.
For example, microRNAs (miRs) are small noncoding RNAs that
regulate gene expression primarily through base-pair interactions
with 3'-untranslated regions of target genes and this results in altered
gene expression. It is estimated that miRs regulate up to 30% of all
genes in humans: In contrast, larger intergenic noncoding RNAs
(lincRs) such as HOTAIR regulate chromatin structure through
epigenetic pathways. The number and function of noncoding RNAs
being discovered is continually increasing. It is certain that they
will play an important role in toxicology and pharmacology. The
CE committee is interested in receiving proposals that will provide
in-depth instruction on noncoding RNAs, including what they are
and how they function, their effects on xenobiotic sensitivity and
disposition, their importance in disease risks and phenotypes, and
their relevance to toxicological research, including human environment
responses, heritable environmentally-induced changes, and the
integration of their novel characteristics into studies of xenobiotic
mechanisms and the drug development/safety assessment processes.
Proposals highlighting vital roles of noncoding RNAs in human
diseases, particularly environmentally influenced diseases, and the
significance of physiological changes due to noncoding RNAs in the
treatment of conditions are also of interest.
2012 Continuing Education Courses
Alternative In Vitro Toxicology Testing
for the 21st Century
SR01
CE Basic
Chairperson(s): Stephen H. Safe, Texas A&M University, College
Station, TX.
Endorsed by:
Risk Assessment Specialty Section
Over the last two decades, alternatives to animal testing were strongly
driven by animal welfare considerations. A culture of organotypic
cell models, quality assurance, and validation developed, which
resulted in a number of novel approaches for regulatory testing.
Progress to replace especially the systemic and chronic types of
tests has been limited. Novel programs to assess large numbers of
substances such as existing chemicals (REACH and the emerging
TSCA reauthorization), nanoparticles, or mixtures, as well as new
products such as biologicals and cell therapies now add to the need
to move to another approach for toxicity testing. Additionally,
interest in health effects like endocrine disruption, developmental
neurotoxicity, immunotoxicity, obesity, atherosclerosis, or childhood
asthma require extensive and new types of testing. This is often
referred to as Toxicity Testing for the 21st Century (Tox-21c), after
the respective NAS vision document from 2007, which was made
US EPA’s toxicity testing strategy in 2009. The central change is
moving from apical “black box” animal models to mechanism or
pathway of toxicity (PoT). The biotechnology and bioinformatics
revolution of recent years has made it possible to develop systems
biology, here systems toxicology, approaches. The experiences from
the field of alternative methods now prove to be the most important
to implement a new regulatory approach. Standardization and
validation of cell cultures is crucial for PoT identification as well as
the implementation of high-throughput types of tests based on PoT.
The first projects to systematically map the entirety of human PoT,
the Human Toxome, have started. The validation of these novel tests
represents an enormous challenge. It is proposed to follow the role
model of evidence-based medicine. For this purpose, the evidencebased
toxicology collaboration was started at SOT 2011 and is
currently shaping its procedures and governance.
• Alternative In Vitro Toxicology Testing for the 21st Century.
Thomas A. Hartung, John Hopkins University Center for
Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT), Baltimore, MD.
CE
up-to-date information at www.toxicology.org 53
CE Target Area