Toxicogenomic applications in risk assessment at Health Canada
- DOI
- Language of the publication
- English
- Date
- 2019-02-21
- Type
- Article
- Author(s)
- Yauk, Carole L.
- Cheung, Carmen
- Barton-Maclaren, Tara S.
- Boucher, Sherri
- Bourdon-Lacombe, Julie
- Chauhan, Vinita
- Gagné, Matthew
- Gillespie, Zoe
- Halappanavar, Sabina
- Honeyman, Michael
- Jones, Steven R.
- Jones-McLean, Elaine
- Labib, Sarah
- MacAulay, Jane
- Moore, Jocelyn
- Paquette, Martin
- Petronella, Nicholas
- Semalulu, Souleh
- Slot, Andrew
- Vespa, Alisa
- Woodland, Cindy L.A.
- Publisher
- Elsevier
Abstract
Based on increasing use of mechanistic information in risk assessment, Health Canada's (HC) Task Force on Scientific Risk Assessment established a working group to review and report on the application of toxicogenomics across HC's risk assessment bureaus. The aim was to review current applications and needs for toxicogenomics at HC, to document existing challenges and to promote consistent/coherent risk assessments that consider toxicogenomics. Overall, HC foresees a role for toxicogenomics in risk assessment. To date, select bureaus have incorporated toxicogenomic data, primarily in weight of evidence approaches, to support mode of action analysis. Future efforts to foster networks for increasing expertise/capacity around toxicogenomic data interpretation were viewed as valuable endeavours, and continued support of research to advance applications was recommended.
Plain language summary
Health Canada (HC) conducts science-based assessments to evaluate potential health and environmental risks to Canadians. Toxicogenomics is defined as the application of genomic technologies to study the influence of toxicants on genome structure and function. Toxicogenomics experiments provide information about how the levels of biological molecules (e.g., genes, proteins and metabolites) change in response to toxicant exposure, which can be used to gain insight into an agent’s potential hazard, dose-response, mode of action and human relevance. It is envisioned that toxicogenomics can support international efforts to move towards more efficient, integrated and mechanism-based approaches to risk assessment. Based on advances in this field over the past decade and increasing use of mechanistic information in risk assessment, HC’s Task Force on Scientific Risk Assessment established a working group to review the application of toxicogenomics across HC‘s risk assessment and regulatory bureaus (excluding research bureaus). The aim was to review current applications and needs for toxicogenomics at HC, and to document existing challenges. This project was viewed as critical for providing regulators with the information needed to promote consistent and coherent risk assessments that consider toxicogenomics at HC. Overall, the regulatory and risk assessment areas of HC foresee a role for toxicogenomic data in risk assessment. To-date, select HC bureaus have incorporated toxicogenomic data, primarily in weight of evidence (WoE) approaches to support mode of action. While it was recognized that most toxicogenomic data are not currently well established scientifically for decision-making, there was agreement that these data could contribute to the WoE approach depending on the respective needs within the department’s risk assessment areas. Future efforts within HC to foster networks for increasing expertise and capacity around toxicogenomic data interpretation were viewed as valuable endeavours, and continued support of research to advance applications and develop best practices was recommended.
Subject
- Health,
- Health and safety