Abstract
Biomarkers in Toxicology is an important text for every toxicologist because the scope of the volume is greater than simply identifying indicators of adverse consequences of toxicants. With minimum, but sufficient background and experience, a toxicologist will discover how important aspects of toxicology are practiced using biomarkers. The text’s content, its organization and the competence by which it is treated, mandates more than a casual review by every toxicologist. After a serious analysis, it will become clear that the text goes beyond identifying biomarkers for adverse biologic events. For the attentive reader, the text lays out the essence of toxicology so that biomarkers have a context in which they can be understood and appreciated.
The book has 1152 pages that are distributed among 8 parts and an index. The parts are named as Part I—General, Part II—Systems Toxicity Biomarkers, Part III—Agents Toxicity Biomarkers, Part IV—Pharmaceuticals and Nutraceuticals Biomarkers, Part V—Biomarkers of Petroleum Products and Mixtures Toxicity, Part VI—Biomarkers of Radiation, Nanoparticles and Carcinogenesis, Part VII—Special Topics, and Part VIII—Applications of Biomarkers in Toxicology. The 8 parts are further divided into varying numbers of chapters for each of the parts.
Part II—Systems Toxicity Biomarkers and Part III—Agents Toxicity Biomarkers are the 2 largest parts of the treatise and collectively account for almost 40% of the book. These 2 parts constitute the core components of the book and will appeal to and serve all toxicologists. For those medical scientists who are not practicing toxicologists will find Part I—General, an ideal introduction to toxicology and a foundation for using biomarkers. The book concludes with a part that provides further guidance for both toxicologists and medical scientists who are not toxicologists for using biomarkers in a wide variety of applications. These important applications include safety evaluations, pharmacokinetic investigations, risk assessments, and other practical applications that are covered in 10 individual chapters.
Part I—General contains 8 chapters that provide an overview of biomarkers as tools and their applications in toxicology. Part I begins with a brief chapter that serves not only as an introduction but also as a foundation for the book. The remaining chapters in Part I cover an array of animal models for which various biomarkers have been developed and are used. Beyond the specific animal models where biomarkers are used, additional chapters describe biomarkers that are used for in vitro testing, including nonmammal models. Part I concludes with a brief chapter on toxicokinetic models. Part I lays the foundation for the remainder of the text, which is more focused on biomarkers and less on the details of toxicology.
Part II—Systems Toxicity Biomarkers contains 14 chapters which describe the biomarkers that are used for specific organs or physiologic systems. The obvious focus is on the response by the target and, in addition, the response of some not-so-common target organs or functions of physiologic systems that ordinarily do not get biomarker attention. For example, a toxicologist who may be part of team developing drugs for the treatment or prevention of diabetes or digestive disorders would find Chapter 16—Biomarkers of Acute and Chronic Pancreatitis more that helpful. How many toxicologists could name at least 1 biomarker for ocular toxicity or determine if there was toxicity to the human placenta or the placentation process using biomarkers? Toxicologists using Biomarkers in Toxicology, especially Part II, would accrue emoluments for developing, using, interpreting, and explaining the presence or absence of toxicity in not-so-common targets.
In Parts III to VI, the focus shifts from the target organ or physiologic system to classes of materials that illicit toxicity and the biomarkers associated with various groups of materials without reference to the target in the animal. The classes that are addressed in Part III—Agents Toxicity Biomarkers include specific chemicals or agents to mycotoxicities and poisonous plants. In addition, the chapter on biomarkers for poisonous plants has diagnostic influence or propensity associated with it so that the toxicologist can assist clinicians in the diagnosis of toxicity caused by plant-derived toxins. Parts IV to VI cover more class-centered targets where biomarkers are employed including pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, petroleum products, mixtures, radiation, nanoparticles, and carcinogenesis. It is obvious, even to the casual observer, that the coverage of biomarkers for classes of materials is comprehensive.
Part VII—Special Topics could have been labeled as disease biomarkers. The chapters in Part VII cover biomarkers associated with specific diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases to generic diagnostic pathology of diseases, especially those not caused by toxicants and toxins. The last chapter in Part VII, Pathological Biomarkers in Toxicology, describes pathological conditions well but is short on connecting the pathology to biomarkers. The chapter authors missed an opportunity to bridge structural or anatomical changes associated with physiological or functional changes using biomarkers.
In the final Part VIII—Applications of Biomarkers in Toxicology, the author pulls together and ties the previous parts of the practice of toxicology and explains how and where toxicology can and does use biomarkers.
Recently, there has been rapid growth and development of biomarkers for practicing toxicologists, and the growth will continue in the future. However, for clarity, a cautionary comment is appropriate. As I pointed out previously, 1 the term “biomarker” is on a path to becoming a meaningless, or at least a nonspecific descriptor, in a fashion similar to words such as “things, stuff, material, and components,” which describes everything while at the same time defines nothing. With vigilance for clarity, the treatise will become a standard text and reference for every toxicologist. Furthermore, Biomarkers in Toxicology will be, for many toxicologists, the second reference addition to their personal libraries after Casarett and Doull’s. The challenge facing Biomarkers in Toxicology will be to keep the text current as new biomarker development and use evolve.