Signaling motifs (nuclear transcriptional receptors, kinase/phosphatase cascades, G-coupled protein receptors, etc.) have composite dose-response behaviors in relation to concentrations of protein receptors and endogenous signaling molecules. "Molecular circuits" include the biological components and their interactions that comprise the workings of these signaling motifs. Many of these molecular circuits have nonlinear dose-response behaviors for endogenous ligands and for exogenous toxicants, acting as switches with "all-or-none" responses over a narrow range of concentration. In turn, these biological switches regulate large-scale cellular processes, e.g., commitment to cell division, cell differentiation, and phenotypic alterations. Biologically based dose-response (BBDR) models accounting for these biological switches would improve risk assessment for many nonlinear processes in toxicology. These BBDR models must account for normal control of the signaling motifs and for perturbations by toxic compounds. We describe several of these biological switches, current tools available for constructing BBDR models of these processes, and the potential value of these models in risk assessment.

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We have previously developed a sensitive and rapid mammalian cell mutation assay which is based on a Chinese hamster ovary cell line that stably incorporates human chromosome 11 (CHO A(L)) and uses flow cytometry to measure mutations in CD59. We now show that multiparameter flow cytometry may be used to simultaneously analyze irradiated CHO A(L) cells for mutations in five CD genes along chromosome 11 (CD59, CD44, CD90, CD98, CD151) and also a GPI-anchor gene. Using this approach, 19 different mutant clones derived from individual sorted mutant cells were analyzed to determine the mutant spectrum induced by ionizing radiation. All clones analyzed were negative for CD59 expression and PCR confirmed that at least CD59 exon 4 was also absent. As expected, ionizing radiation frequently caused large deletions along chromosome 11. This technology can readily be used to rapidly analyze the mutant yield as well as the spectrum of mutations caused by a variety of genotoxic agents and provide greater insight into the mechanisms of mutagenesis.

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Infection with Influenza A virus can lead to the development of encephalitis and subsequent neurological deficits ranging from headaches to neurodegeneration. Post-encephalitic parkinsonism has been reported in surviving patients of H1N1 infections, but not all cases of encephalitic H1N1 infection present with these neurological symptoms, suggesting that interactions with an environmental neurotoxin could promote more severe neurological damage. The heavy metal, manganese (Mn), is a potential interacting factor with H1N1 because excessive exposure early in life can induce long-lasting effects on neurological function through inflammatory activation of glial cells. In the current study, we used a two-hit model of neurotoxin-pathogen exposure to examine whether exposure to Mn during juvenile development would induce a more severe neuropathological response following infection with H1N1 in adulthood. To test this hypothesis, C57BL/6 mice were exposed to MnCl2 in drinking water (50 mg/kg/day) for 30 days from days 21–51 postnatal, then infected intranasally with H1N1 three weeks later. Analyses of dopaminergic neurons, microglia and astrocytes in basal ganglia indicated that although there was no significant loss of dopaminergic neurons within the substantia nigra pars compacta, there was more pronounced activation of microglia and astrocytes in animals sequentially exposed to Mn and H1N1, as well as altered patterns of histone acetylation. Whole transcriptome Next Generation Sequencing (RNASeq) analysis was performed on the substantia nigra and revealed unique patterns of gene expression in the dual-exposed group, including genes involved in antioxidant activation, mitophagy and neurodegeneration. Taken together, these results suggest that exposure to elevated levels of Mn during juvenile development could sensitize glial cells to more severe neuro-immune responses to influenza infection later in life through persistent epigenetic changes.