Abstract
Dear Readers,
Each year, the American College of Toxicology Publications Committee has the enviable task of selecting the paper to receive the President’s Award for the Best Paper published in the International Journal of Toxicology. The task was particularly challenging this year and actually took several rounds of discussion and voting by the Committee. The paper that was ultimately selected for this award was by Shah SA, Paranjpe MG, Atkins PI, and Zahalka EA, entitled “Reduction in the Number of Animals and the Evaluation Period for the Positive Control Group in Tg.rasH2 Short-Term Carcinogenicity Studies,” published in the September-October 2012 issue of Int J Toxicol. Congratulations to these authors and their colleagues who contributed to this manuscript! I do want to recognize the other papers that were nominated for the award this year as I believe that they not only are outstanding contributions to the field of toxicology but also represent technological advances in the development of risk assessment and mechanisms of toxicity.
Also nominated for the 2013 Best Paper award were: Desaulniers D, et al. Effects of developmental exposure to mixtures of environmental contaminants on the hepatic metabolism of estradiol-17β in immature female Sprague Dawley rats. Int J Toxicol. 2012;31(5):454-466. Gad SC, et al. Evaluation of the toxicity of intravenous delivery of auroshell particles (gold–silica nanoshells). Int J Toxicol. 2012;31(6):584-594. Harvilchuck JA, et al. In vivo acetylcholinesterase reactivation in male guinea pigs and Rhesus macaques following cyclosarin exposure and treatment with 1,1′-methylenebis{4-[(hydroxyimino)methyl] pyridinium} dimethanesulfonate. Int J Toxicol. 2013;32(4 suppl):99S-107S. McDuffie JE, et al. Time course of renal proximal tubule injury, reversal, and related biomarker changes in rats following cisplatin administration. Int J Toxicol. 2013;32(4):251-260. McFarland AJ, et al. Paradoxical role of 3-methyladenine in pyocyanin-induced toxicity in 1321N1 astrocytoma and SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. Int J Toxicol. 2013;32(3):209-218. Politano VT, et al. The pharmacokinetics of phenylethyl alcohol (PEA): safety evaluation comparisons in rats, rabbits, and humans. Int J Toxicol. 2013;32(1):39-47 Satyamitra M, et al. Preliminary nonclinical toxicity, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of ALXN4100TPO, a thrombopoietin receptor agonist, in CD2F1 mice. Int J Toxicol. 2013;32(2):100-112. Stokes AH, et al. Effects of Solutol (Kolliphor) and Cremophor in polyethylene glycol 400 vehicle formulations in Sprague Dawley rats and beagle dogs. Int J Toxicol. 2013;32(3):189-197. Word B, et al. Cigarette smoke condensate induces differential expression and promoter methylation profiles of critical genes involved in lung cancer in NL-20 lung cells in vitro: short term and chronic exposure. Int J Toxicol. 2013;32:23-31. Zaccaria KJ, McClure PR. Using immunotoxicity information to improve cancer risk assessment for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon mixtures. Int J Toxicol. 2013;32(4):236-250.
In my ongoing effort to recognize interesting and potentially high-impact papers published in other journals, I’m going to step outside of the field of toxicology this time and recognize a paper that I believe may represent a key advance in Alzheimer disease research. As we all know, the right animal model can be elusive, and this has certainly been the case in studying the molecular basis and potential treatments for various debilitating neurodegenerative diseases. In their paper, published earlier this year, Cohen et al 1 describe a transgenic rat model that recapitulates many of the key features of human Alzheimer disease. The rat expresses both mutant human amyloid precursor protein and presenilin 1 genes, each of which are independently recognized as causes of early-onset familial Alzheimer disease. The authors report that their rat model displays “age-dependent cerebral amyloidosis that precedes tauopathy, gliosis, apoptotic loss of neurons in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus, and cognitive disturbance. These results demonstrate progressive neurodegeneration of the Alzheimer type in these animals.” The paper is robust in its approaches (molecular biology, human and rat pathology, behavioral analyses, etc), and I find the results to be compelling. The hope is that this new animal model of human Alzheimer disease will accelerate translational research in Alzheimer disease.
As 2013 winds down, I wish all of you the best and thank you for your ongoing support. Our impact factor improved this year and will continue to do so if we continue to publish outstanding manuscripts. SAGE, our publisher, has also recognized us for our relatively quick average time to return first reviews to our authors (we average less than 1 month in this regard). Use these encouraging facts to encourage your colleagues to send their manuscripts our way!
Sincerely,