Title:Applications of Metabonomics in Pesticide Toxicology
Volume: 16
Issue: 3
Author(s): Pan Wang and Yi-Jun Wu
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Biomarker, environmental toxicity, metabonomics, pesticide, risk assessment, toxicology.
Abstract: Metabonomic studies quantitatively measure the small molecule metabolites and their intermediates in
the biological samples (serum, urine or tissue extracts) and have gained wide applications in many fields, especially
in toxicology. Pesticides are extensively used around the world and pesticide toxicity has become a serious
threat to human health. Metabonomic approach has been applied in many aspects of pesticide toxicology research
such as eco-environmental toxicity studies, biomarker identification, and mechanism of toxicity studies. Both
whole organism animal models and cell culture models are used for metabonomic studies on pesticide toxicology.
In the literature, metabonomic analyses on the toxicity of over thirty common pesticides, including insecticides,
herbicides and fungicides, have been carried out using magnetic resonance spectroscopy or mass spectrometry. The combined toxicity of
pesticides or pesticide with heavy metals was also investigated with metabonomic approach. In this article, recent progresses made in applying
metabonomic approach in pesticide toxicology are thoroughly reviewed and the challenges with application of this approach are
also discussed.
