Archives of Clinical Toxicology

•    The primary objective of the journal is to build a platform for sharing novel and unique findings, innovative ideas and out of the box solutions and opinions in the field of Toxicology. 
•    Special issues focusing on mechanisms and consequences of toxicity that results from dysfunction of intrinsic biological pathways (such as DNA repair and immune system) and that associated with extrinsic factors, especially chemotherapeutic agents and genotoxins found in food and environment, will be organized.    

There is great variation in the drugs prescribed, used and most importantly available to the public in different countries.

Pregabalin is an antiepileptic and analgesic drug, commercialized under the name of Lyrica and other names, generally used to treat neuropathic pain. The determination of pregabalin was quantified in tissues and fluids samples by using Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, isolation and precipitation protein by Ammonium Sulfate method. The limit of detection (LOD) is 200 ng and the limit of quantification (LOQ) in is 400 ng. Ibuprofen was used as internal standard, this methods has been applied in two cases of pregabalin.

The extent of side effects or toxicity depends on the dose and can vary from subject to subject and from treatment to treatment. It is important to note that many of the side effects are temporary, decreasing and/or gradually disappearing in the days following administration or discontinuation of treatment.

The primary question of this short communication could be a paradoxical not scientific ‘’why’’. But why? Maybe because, in our modern world, more and more screening of drugs is done in the army, in big companies, in schools, on the road, and so on [1]. The original and logical consequence of this augmentation of screening affects results: indeed, the more we investigate to find drugs, the more we find drugs. Therefore, it appears interesting to wonder the reason why a screening of drugs is being done, for what purpose and moreover, in which samples, urine or only in blood samples. Foremost, remember, that in principle, to get a good answer, we always need to ask the right question.

In normal cells, homologous recombination (HR) is strictly regulated and precise and plays an important role in preserving genomic integrity by accurately repairing DNA damage. RAD51 is the recombinase which mediates homologous base pairing and strand exchange during DNA repair by HR. We have previously reported that HR is spontaneously elevated (or dysregulated) in esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and contributes to ongoing genomic changes and instability. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of RAD51 inhibitor on genomic toxicity caused by etoposide, a chemotherapeutic agent.

Cytokines and chemokines are engaged in the protection of an organism against external aggressors and diseases. They work together regulating and determining the nature of immune responses and controlling the immune cell trafficking and the cellular arrangement of immune organs. An imbalance or dysregulation in cytokines or chemokines contributes to various diseases where the immune system is involved. The use of cytokines or antibodies against cytokines and their receptors can be an effective therapy for autoimmune disease and some cancers.

Forensic and medical toxicology are the two sides of the same medal. Let’s understand this with this case. At seven o’clock in the morning, a young man is controlled by a police patrol because of erratic driving behavior. The police officer decides to do urine and blood analysis of the driver, who is brought to the hospital. The screening result of urine is positive for THC-COOH (the inactive metabolite of THC). In blood, the results indicate a concentration of 18 µg/l for THC (active substance of Cannabis), 13 µg/l for 11-OH-THC (the active metabolite of THC) and 170 µg/l for THC-COOH.

Until recently, eating food has usually been regarded as a low risk activity. In the last century, industrialization has changed methods and chemicals used in the food supply chain to improve production, maintenance, and acceptance by consumers. Hazardous substances can be used in these processes. However, despite the many potential health risks associated with food, in practice, the degree of risk associated with modern food supply is extremely low. The presence and levels of hazardous substances in food, such as chemicals intentionally added, or contaminants and residuals, is constantly monitored and evaluated by national and international agencies assuring safe foodstuff to the public.

The health consequences of tobacco use continue to be a major concern in the United States and the world. Consequently, nicotine metabolite testing has expanded to include workplace testing, child custody cases, health insurance pre-qualification, pre-surgical organ transplant qualification, and smoking cessation programs. Nicotine use is also linked to poor surgical outcomes and studies have shown an increased risk for infection, increased morbidity, delayed wound healing, longer hospital stays, and postoperative respiratory failure.

We were impressed by the similarity and complementarity between experimental results concerning neurotoxicity induced by prefibrillar oligomers (PFOs) of two different proteins belonging to the “amyloid” family: salmon Calcitonin (sCT) and Amyloid-β1-42 (Aβ1-42). The results were recently published by our group for sCT and by Yasumoto’s group for Aβ1-42 [2]. The comparison is very interesting in the open debate about the intriguing hypothesis of the existence of a “common mechanism” in the pathogenesis of amyloid neurodegenerations.

Methylene blue (MB) is commonly used as a medication and dye for various purposes and its presence in an aqueous solution may prove to be toxic and can cause various health problems. Due to this, the removal of MB dye from aqueous solutions is one of the major concerns for the scientific community. Photocatalyst is a promising material for the effective degradation of MB dye whereas traditional catalyst is not effective in the presence of visible light. In this short communication, the possibility of photocatalyst based on graphene oxide (GO) decorated with silver nanowires (AgNWs) will be explored. 

Multiple species obtain repetitive head collisions throughout the course of their lifetimes with minimal neurologic deficit. Nature has allowed the unique development of multiple protective mechanisms to help prevent neurotrauma. In this review, we examine the concept of rapid brain movement within the skull ‘Slosh’ and what nature teaches on how to prevent this from occurring.

A 2006 publication entitled ‘Catalytic Antioxidants to Treat Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis’ summarized the therapeutic effects of metalloporphyrins (MPs) and metallotexaphyrins (MTs) in the G93A superoxide dismutase (SOD1) mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

Heart disease is one of the top causes of healthcare expenses in the United States. Lethal ventricular cardiac arrhythmia can arise in acquired or congenital heart disease. Long QT syndrome type 3 (LQT3) is a congenital form of ventricular arrhythmia caused by mutations in the cardiac sodium channel SCN5A. Mexiletine is a Class 1 antiarrhythmic drug that inhibits INa-L and shortens the QT interval in LQT3 patients. However, slightly above therapeutic doses, Mexiletine prolongs the cardiac action potential. Mexiletine was reengineered in an iterative process called dynamic medicinal chemistry to explore structure activity relationships (SAR) for AP shortening and prolongation of AP kinetics in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs).

Hydroxychloroquine is an alternative drug that was proposed for possible usefulness in management of COVID-1. Until present, there still no conclusion whether the drug is useful for the management of COVID-19 or not. The wide usage of hydroxychloroquine during COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an increased report of side effects. It is necessary to weight between benefit and risk of the drug when it is applied as an alternative management of COVID-19 in each individual patient.

Anaphylactic reactions to snake venom have been poorly documented in the scientific literature. The populations at risk are people exposed to multiple bites or workers in venom extraction or toxin research centers constantly exposed to liquid, lyophilized, or powdered venom aerosols. Based on the report of a case of anaphylaxis suffered by one of us exposed to snake venom for 30 years, we underline the threat of this type of violent reaction as an occupational hazard to the exposed population and the need for preventive measures to minimize its frequency and consequences.

Delayed poisoning cases pose a major challenge to clinical toxicologists due to the multifold complications that can arise in addition to the primary clinical impact. One example is pesticide poisoning, which can lead to delayed cholinergic syndrome, intermediate syndrome, organophosphate-induced delayed polyneuropathy, and chronic organophosphate-induced neuropsychiatric disorder.

In our previous study, we synthesized a novel Fluorinated Trifluoromethyl 4-Thiazolidinone (FTT), which demonstrated promising in vitro anti-cancer activity against Ovarian cancer cells (SKOV3) and Cervical cancer cells (HeLa cells). Hence in the present work, we further investigated it’s probable genotoxic potentials on normal cells in vitro using Chinese Hamster Ovary cells (CHO-K1). Based on the IC50 value in CHO-K1 (4.53 μM), three sub-lethal concentrations were chosen (1, 1.5 and 2 μM) and different cytogenetic toxicity endpoints like induction of chromosome aberrations (CAs), micronuclei (MN) formation, Mitotic index (MI) and Cell cycle studies were performed.

Degradation of Caffeine, artificially impregnated in sterile and unsterile soil, studied under ambient conditions using the Himalayan psychrotolerant Pseudomonas sp. (GBPI_Hb5). The caffeine degradation was found increased significantly in presence of GBPI_Hb5. The t_1/2 value was estimated during kinetic study of caffeine degradation both in the presence and absence of bacteria in sterilized and unsterilized soil samples, which was also found reduced significantly.