Advances in omics techniques and molecular toxicology are necessary to provide new perspectives for regulatory toxicology. By the application of modern molecular techniques, more mechanistic information should be gained to support standard toxicity studies and to contribute to a reduction and refinement of animal experiments required for certain regulatory purposes. The relevance and applicability of data obtained by omics methods to regulatory purposes such as grouping of chemicals, mode of action analysis or classification and labelling needs further improvement, defined validation and cautious expert judgment. Based on the results of an international expert workshop organized 2014 by the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment in Berlin, this paper is aimed to provide a critical overview of the regulatory relevance and reliability of omics methods, basic requirements on data quality and validation, as well as regulatory criteria to decide which effects observed by omics methods should be considered adverse or non-adverse. As a way forward, it was concluded that the inclusion of omics data can facilitate a more flexible approach for regulatory risk assessment and may help to reduce or refine animal testing.
International chemical regulatory activities are moving towards new approach methodology and away from traditional animal-based models, shifting and expanding from one single in vivo assay towards combined use of different in vitro assays within integrated approaches for testing and assessment and defined approaches to serve hazard identification, classification and selection of points of departure for risk assessment. Whilst many in vitro test guidelines were developed against specific hazard cut-off values, quantitative information is needed in data interpretation procedures for potency assessment purposes or to define points of departure so that assays can fulfill evolving regulatory needs. Utilizing four examples from skin sensitization, phototoxicity, endocrine activity, and nongenotoxic carcinogenicity, we illustrate why a shift in data generation and data interpretation procedures is needed to facilitate the full exploitation of the data that is generated using these assays. This requires the development of a practical approach that uses or expands upon existing guidance. Experience gained with such an approach can then provide a basis for an overarching strategy in test guideline development that should better facilitate combinations of in vitro test guidelines for specific endpoints that will be more transparent, robust, and adaptable for specific regulatory purposes.
Organ-on-chip (OoC) systems are microfabricated cell culture devices designed to model functional units of human organs by harboring an in vitro generated organ surrogate. In the present study, we reviewed issues and opportunities related to the application of OoC in the safety and efficacy assessment of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, as well as the steps needed to achieve this goal. The relative complexity of OoC over simple in vitro assays provides advantages and disadvantages in the context of compound testing. The broader biological domain of OoC potentially enhances their predictive value, whereas their complexity present issues with throughput, standardization and transferability. Using OoCs for regulatory purposes requires detailed and standardized protocols, providing reproducible results in an interlaboratory setting. The extent to which interlaboratory standardization of OoC is feasible and necessary for regulatory application is a matter of debate. The focus of applying OoCs in safety assessment is currently directed to characterization (the biology represented in the test) and qualification (the performance of the test). To this aim, OoCs are evaluated on a limited scale, especially in the pharmaceutical industry, with restricted sets of reference substances. Given the low throughput of OoC, it is questionable whether formal validation, in which many reference substances are extensively tested in different laboratories, is feasible for OoCs. Rather, initiatives such as open technology platforms, and collaboration between OoC developers and risk assessors may prove an expedient strategy to build confidence in OoCs for application in safety and efficacy assessment.
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