Toxicology - deck III Flashcards
(100 cards)
Biodegradation of organic
environmental toxicants
occurs due to
direct contact with the microbial enzymes.
One enzyme molecule catalyzes decomposition of millions of organic molecules per minute.
Biodegradation of organic environmental toxicants is usually a multi-step process, occurring
in the cooperation of a number of
microorganisms that often act synergistically.
PAH
polyaromatic hydrocarbons or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of chemicals that occur naturally in coal, crude oil, and gasoline.
They result from burning coal, oil, gas, wood, garbage, and tobacco. PAHs can bind to or form small particles in the air.
Classification of bioremediation methods (5)
- Intrinsic bioremediation
- Biostimulation
- Bioaugmentation
- Phytoremediation
- Rhizoremediation
- Intrinsic bioremediation means
or natural attenuation,
happens naturally in the contaminated area, such as a petrol-polluted old gas station.
It relies on natural conditions and behavior of soil microorganisms that are indigenous
to soil.
Any site is unique, know-how obtained in one site is not directly conveyable to another contaminated site.
- Biostimulation remediation
means
adding nutrients and other substances to soil to catalyze natural attenuation.
Nutrients in a gas or liquid form are added to soil or water where there is a need to
remove contaminants.
Bacteria are already there, they are just stimulated for growth
and activity. Essentially, the bacteria turn the harmful substances (and other) into CO2.
- Bioaugmentation remediation
involves
introduction of exogenic microorganisms (sourced from outside the soil environment) capable of detoxifying and removing a particular contaminant, sometimes GMO are used.
- Phytoremediation is
Use of plants to clean up soil, water or air.
NB! These plants cannot be used for feed or food.
- Rhizoremediation is
the most evolved process of bioremediation,
involves removal of contaminants by mutual interaction of plant
roots and suitable microflora in the rhizosphere, the region of soil directly influenced by root secretions and associated soil
microbes.
- Pollutants remediated by this method are mainly organic compounds, unable enter the plant due to
their high hydrophobicity.
NB! Plants will not become toxic.
photolysis
also known as Photodegradation
Photolysis, as a chemical reaction that occurs under the influence of photons or light, may take place in the atmosphere and on the surface of either water or soil,but it does not occur in benthic sediments and deep
layers of soil.
There are two types of photochemical reactions:
- direct photolysis
- indirect photolysis
Ecotoxicology is a
subdiscipline of environmental toxicology studying
harmful effects of toxicants at the population and ecosystem levels.
Effects upon individuals are important if they are translated into effects at these levels.
Biomagnification
is a process which results in
higher concentration of a substance in an organism than in its food.
The higher concentration of a
substance in an organism than in its food.
Concentration of some chemicals in the fatty tissues of top
predators
can be ? of times higher than the concentration in the open water.
Concentration of some chemicals in the fatty tissues of top
predators
can be millions of times higher than the concentration in the open water.
The real reason for biomagnification is
the time factor. Organisms, dwelling at higher levels of the food chain live longer and, hence, have more time for the bioaccumulation
of toxicants.
QSAR
Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analysis is a practical approach by which chemical structure is quantitatively correlated with biological activity or chemical reactivity.
QSAR is involved in drug discovery and designing to identify chemical structures with good inhibitory effects on specific targets and with low toxicity levels.
The most important purpose of QSAR modeling is to predict the activity/property/toxicity of new chemical entity (NCE) falling within the domain of applicability of the developed models.
QSAR models remain a good alternative to animal testing, which would otherwise be necessary to determine the toxicity of unknown substances.
Two basic truths in the design of the animal studies are:
- The adverse effect of a toxicant can, in “principle“, be extrapolated from animals to humans. (For human safety reasons, it is considered that humans are at least 10 times more
sensitive than animals.) - To minimize the number of necessary laboratory animals.
Genotoxicity tests
Genotoxicity tests can be defined as in vitro and in vivo tests designed to detect compounds which induce genetic damage directly or indirectly by various mechanisms. These tests should enable a hazard identification with respect to damage to DNA and its fixation.
These genotoxicity tests are done to identify if a drug or other substance have the potential to cause mutation and genotoxicity.
Comet assay
The comet assay (single-cell gel electrophoresis) is a simple method for measuring deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) strand breaks in eukaryotic cells.
Allows for the detection of a wide array of DNA damage in single cells with a high sensitivity.
Salmonella/mammal microsome (Ames) test
enables detection of the reversed mutations formed in the DNA of Gram-negative enterobacterium Salmonella typhimurium after exposure to a genotoxic substance and to the rat liver homogenate. The number of mutant colonies, able to grow in the histidine-free environment is estimated.
The Ames test shows the number of bacterial cells, which after an exposure to the chemical, have mutated from His- genotype to His+ genotype.
The Ames test is a rapid and reliable bacterial assay used to evaluate a chemical’s potential genotoxicity by measuring its ability to induce reverse mutations at selected loci of several bacterial strains.
The following alternative oral acute toxicity animal tests have been developed:
- Fixed Dose Procedure (FDP)
- Acute Toxic Class (ATC)
- Up and Down Procedure (UDP
These methods guarantee significant improvements in animal welfare and permit to reduce dramatically the number of the test animals needed.
In water, the biodegradation rate depends on
presence of particulate matter,
concentration of inorganic and organic nutrients,
temperature,
oxygen concentration,
redox potential and
adaptation of the microbial population.
In soil, the range and rate of biodegradation depend on
temperature,
soil moisture content,
the composition and activity of bacterial flora,
the properties and “age” of a pollutant and
the content of nutritive ingredients.
The rate of photochemical reactions depends on
the number of chlorine atoms in a compound, the more C-Cl bonds, the slower the rate