Foreign compound toxicity biochemical effects

These three types of toxic effect will be considered together as they are often all closely interrelated. Thus, toxic foreign compounds can affect the homeostasis of an organism by altering basic biochemical processes. These effects may often be reversible if inhibition of an enzyme or binding to a receptor is involved. A well defined dose-response relation is often observed with such effects, and the end-point... 

Studies of the metabolism of xenobiotics were the first biochemically-orientated approaches to find wide application in toxicology. The metabolic biotransformations undergone by foreign compounds were initially viewed as detoxification reactions and as such, were generally regarded as important determinants of the quantitative aspects of toxic effects. 

---