Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Apr 9:6:1339104.
doi: 10.3389/ftox.2024.1339104. eCollection 2024.

New approach methodologies to enhance human health risk assessment of immunotoxic properties of chemicals - a PARC (Partnership for the Assessment of Risk from Chemicals) project

Igor Snapkow  1 , Nicola M Smith  1 , Emma Arnesdotter  2 , Karsten Beekmann  3 , Etienne B Blanc  4 , Albert Braeuning  5 , Emanuela Corsini  6 , Marija Sollner Dolenc  7 , Loes P M Duivenvoorde  3 , Gunnar Sundstøl Eriksen  8 , Nina Franko  7 , Valentina Galbiati  6 , Johanna M Gostner  9 , Nathalie Grova  10 , Arno C Gutleb  2 , Rita Hargitai  11 , Aafke W F Janssen  3 , Solveig A Krapf  12 , Birgitte Lindeman  1 , Katalin Lumniczky  11 , Ambra Maddalon  6 , Steen Mollerup  12 , Lucia Parráková  9 , Arkadiusz Pierzchalski  13 , Raymond H H Pieters  14   15 , Maria J Silva  16 , Anita Solhaug  8 , Yvonne C M Staal  17 , Anne Straumfors  12 , Tünde Szatmári  11 , Jonathan D Turner  10 , Rob J Vandebriel  17 , Ana Claudia Zenclussen  13 , Robert Barouki  4
Affiliations
Review

New approach methodologies to enhance human health risk assessment of immunotoxic properties of chemicals - a PARC (Partnership for the Assessment of Risk from Chemicals) project

Igor Snapkow et al. Front Toxicol. .

Abstract

As a complex system governing and interconnecting numerous functions within the human body, the immune system is unsurprisingly susceptible to the impact of toxic chemicals. Toxicants can influence the immune system through a multitude of mechanisms, resulting in immunosuppression, hypersensitivity, increased risk of autoimmune diseases and cancer development. At present, the regulatory assessment of the immunotoxicity of chemicals relies heavily on rodent models and a limited number of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) test guidelines, which only capture a fraction of potential toxic properties. Due to this limitation, various authorities, including the World Health Organization and the European Food Safety Authority have highlighted the need for the development of novel approaches without the use of animals for immunotoxicity testing of chemicals. In this paper, we present a concise overview of ongoing efforts dedicated to developing and standardizing methodologies for a comprehensive characterization of the immunotoxic effects of chemicals, which are performed under the EU-funded Partnership for the Assessment of Risk from Chemicals (PARC).

Keywords: NAMs; PARC; chemical toxicology; immunosuppression; immunotoxicology; new approach methodologies; regulatory toxicology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

References

    1. Abdullah M., Chai P.-S., Chong M.-Y., Tohit E. R. M., Ramasamy R., Pei C. P., et al. (2012). Gender effect on in vitro lymphocyte subset levels of healthy individuals. Cell. Immunol. 272 (2), 214–219. 10.1016/j.cellimm.2011.10.009 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Abu-Raya B., Michalski C., Sadarangani M., Lavoie P. M. (2020). Maternal immunological adaptation during normal pregnancy. Front. Immunol. 11, 575197. 10.3389/fimmu.2020.575197 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Afanou A. K., Mundra S., Fjeld Estensmo E. L., Pedersen I., Liland J. R., Eriksen E., et al. (2023). Divergent TLR2 and TLR4 activation by fungal spores and species diversity in dust from waste sorting plants. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 89 (3), e0173422–22. 10.1128/aem.01734-22 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Anderson S. E., Siegel P. D., Meade B. J. (2011). The LLNA: a brief review of recent advances and limitations. J. Allergy 2011 (June), e424203. 10.1155/2011/424203 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bąska P., Norbury L. J. (2022). The role of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) in the immune response against parasites. Pathogens 11 (3), 310. 10.3390/pathogens11030310 - DOI - PMC - PubMed