Toxicology human-performance

Gary W. Kunsman, Human Performance Toxicology, Chapter 2 in Principles of Forensic Toxicology, 13-30 and David Sandler, Expert and Opinion Testimony, Chapter 16 in Medical-Legal Aspects of Drugs, 399-437. 

Gary W. Kunsman, Human Performance Toxicology, Chapter 2 in Principles of Forensic Toxicology, 13-30. 

The American Board of Forensic Toxicology (ABFT) is a professional organization that publishes laboratory guidelines and accredits forensic toxicology labs working in the areas of postmortem or human performance toxicology (blood alcohol) website www.abft.org. 

Chemical Diversion and Human performance toxicology Predator drugs... 

Human performance toxicology Area of toxicology that concentrates on substances that alter performance, such as alcohol and steroids. 

The last example shown in Table 26.5 is palivizumab, a monoclonal antibody against an antigen expressed on a virus (RSV). Since this antigen does not exists in any animal species, including humans, all toxicology species are considered equally nonrelevant. The only relevant species is one that is infected with the virus. This example provides an interesting case where animal disease models could be considered more relevant than normal animals. Nevertheless, for palivizumab single-dose acute toxicity studies were performed in rats, rabbits, and macaques. 

Bruner LH, Carr GJ, Harbell JW, and Curren RD (2002) An investigation of new toxicity test method performance in validation studies 1. Toxicity test methods which have predictive capacity no greater than chance. Human Experimental Toxicology 21(305) 312. 

Toxicology studies must be performed in at least two animal species. If the toxicity profile of the compound is acceptable, then it joins the hit or lead list of compounds to proceed. The metabolism of the compound must be understood and pharmacokinetic studies must be performed in small and large animals. Efficacy studies must be performed in relevant animal models, especially in chimpanzees when more than one candidate is identified and a choice has to be made before proceeding to studies in humans. The ultimate preclinical steps include various studies testing drug combinations in vitro and in vivo, selection of resistant viruses, viral fitness, pyrophosphorolysis, and others. 

The manner in which toxicological knowledge must work together with the knowledge of human behavior, fire dynamics, and chemistry to produce an acceptable level of fire safety is proposed. A hypothetical example illustrates what must be done with adequate accuracy in order to design fire safety to a performance code. The example may give the impression that this can already be done. In fact, each computer code used contains dozens of assumptions, some very crude, so that the accuracy of present predictions are unacceptably low. 

Immunotoxicity testing in rodents exposed to industrial and/or environmental chemicals, has been recognized as an important toxicological concern for over 25 years. Early immunotoxicity testing relied primarily on the mouse, due to the plethora of immune structure and function research performed by immunologists to better understand the human immune system. As such, the mouse has been the most employed rodent for immunotoxicity testing. Immune system function assays employed in screening for immunotoxicity were developed in adult mice. These same immune function assays have served to help identify toxicant induced immunosuppression in the rat. 

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