366 research outputs found

    Safety of herbal medicinal products: Echinacea and selected alkylamides do not induce CYP3A4 mRNA expression

    Get PDF
    Copyright Ā© 2011 Maryam Modarai et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.A major safety concern with the use of herbal medicinal products (HMP) is their interactions with conventional medicines, which are often mediated via the cytochrome P450 (CYP) system. Echinacea is a widely used over-the-counter HMP, with proven immunomodulatory properties. Its increasing use makes research into its safety an urgent concern. Previously, we showed that Echinacea extracts and its alkylamides (thought to be important for Echinacea's immunomodulatory activity) mildly inhibit the enzymatic activity of the main drug metabolising CYP isoforms, but to this date, there is insufficient work on its ability to alter CYP expression levels. We now report for the first time the effect of a commercial Echinacea extract (Echinaforce) and four Echinacea alkylamides on the transcription of the major drug metabolizing enzyme CYP3A4. HepG2 cells were exposed for 96 h to clinically relevant concentrations of Echinaforce (22, 11.6 and 1.16g mL-1) or the alkylamides (1.62 and 44 nM). CYP3A4 mRNA levels were quantified using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Neither Echinaforce nor the alkylamides produced any significant changes in the steady-state CYP3A4 mRNA levels, under these conditions. In contrast, treatment with 50M rifampicin resulted in a 3.8-fold up-regulation over the vehicle control. We conclude that Echinaforce is unlikely to affect CYP3A4 transcriptional levels, even at concentrations which can inhibit the enzymatic activity of CYP3A4. Overall, our data provides further evidence for the lack of interactions between Echinacea and conventional drugs.Bioforce, Switzerland and the Maplethorpe Trust (University of London)

    Mixture effects at very low doses with combinations of anti-androgenic pesticides, antioxidants, industrial pollutant and chemicals used in personal care products

    Get PDF
    This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Many xenobiotics have been identified as in vitro androgen receptor (AR) antagonists, but information about their ability to produce combined effects at low concentrations ismissing. Such data can reveal whether joint effects at the receptor are induced at low levels andmay support the prioritisation of in vivo evaluations and provide orientations for the grouping of anti-androgens in cumulative risk assessment. Combinations of 30 AR antagonists from a wide range of sources and exposure routes (pesticides, antioxidants, parabens, UV-filters, synthetic musks, bisphenol-A, benzo(a)pyrene, perfluorooctane sulfonate and pentabromodiphenyl ether) were tested using a reporter gene assay (MDA-kb2). Chemicalswere combined at threemixture ratios, equivalent to single components' effect concentrations that inhibit the action of dihydrotesterone by 1%, 10% or 20%. Concentration addition (CA) and independent action were used to calculate additivity expectations. We observed complete suppression of dihydrotestosterone effects when chemicals were combined at individual concentrations eliciting 1%, 10% or 20% AR antagonistic effect. Due to the large number of mixture components, the combined AR antagonistic effects occurred at very low concentrations of individual mixture components. CA slightly underestimated the combined effects at all mixture ratios. In conclusion, large numbers of AR antagonists froma wide variety of sources and exposure routes have the ability of acting together at the receptor to produce joint effects at very low concentrations. Significant mixture effects are observed when chemicals are combined at concentrations that individually do not induce observable AR antagonistic effects. Cumulative risk assessment for AR antagonists should apply grouping criteria based on effects where data are available, rather than on criteria of chemical similarity

    Extending the applicability of the dose addition model to the assessment of chemical mixtures of partial agonists by using a novel toxic unit extrapolation method

    Get PDF
    This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Dose addition, a commonly used concept in toxicology for the prediction of chemical mixture effects, cannot readily be applied to mixtures of partial agonists with differing maximal effects. Due to its mathematical features, effect levels that exceed the maximal effect of the least efficacious compound present in the mixture, cannot be calculated. This poses problems when dealing with mixtures likely to be encountered in realistic assessment situations where chemicals often show differing maximal effects. To overcome this limitation, we developed a pragmatic solution that extrapolates the toxic units of partial agonists to effect levels beyond their maximal efficacy. We extrapolated different additivity expectations that reflect theoretically possible extremes and validated this approach with a mixture of 21 estrogenic chemicals in the E-Screen. This assay measures the proliferation of human epithelial breast cancers. We found that the dose-response curves of the estrogenic agents exhibited widely varying shapes, slopes and maximal effects, which made it necessary to extrapolate mixture responses above 14% proliferation. Our toxic unit extrapolation approach predicted all mixture responses accurately. It extends the applicability of dose addition to combinations of agents with differing saturating effects and removes an important bottleneck that has severely hampered the use of dose addition in the past. Ā© 2014 Scholze et al

    Invited Perspective: How Relevant Are Mode-of-Action Considerations for the Assessment and Prediction of Mixture Effects?

    Get PDF
    This article is a companion of: Van Der Ven, L.T.M. et al. (2022) ā€˜Dose Addition in the Induction of Craniofacial Malformations in Zebrafish Embryos Exposed to a Complex Mixture of Food-Relevant Chemicals with Dissimilar Modes of Actionā€™, Environmental Health Perspectives. Environmental Health Perspectives. doi:10.1289/ehp9888.Distinguishing chemical mixtures in terms of the similarity vs. dissimilarity of their componentsā€™ mechanisms or modes of action (MOAs) is perceived as a key issue in mixture risk assessment. However, the well-designed study by Van der Ven et al.1 of a mixture of chemicals producing craniofacial malformations in zebra fish embryos calls the relevance of such distinctions into questio

    Systematic review of associations of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) exposure with declining semen quality in support of the derivation of reference doses for mixture risk assessments

    Get PDF
    Background: Mixture risk assessments require reference doses for common health endpoints of all the chemicals to be considered together. In support of a mixture risk assessment for male reproductive health, we conducted a sys tematic review of the literature on associations between exposures to Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) and declines in semen quality. PCBs can act as Aryl-hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR)-agonists and Androgen Receptor (AR)-antagonists, both mechanisms which can afect sperm parameters. PCBs and other AR-antagonists can produce additive combi nation efects. Based on these observations our objective was to systematically gather data from animal and human studies to derive a reference dose for declines in semen quality for individual PCB. Methods: We systematically reviewed and evaluated the evidence in human epidemiological and experimental ani mal studies on associations between PCBs and deteriorations in semen quality. Human data and fndings from animal studies with PCB mixtures were considered as supporting evidence. Information for individual congeners from animal studies was required for inclusion in mixture risk assessment. Using a robust confdence rating approach, we identi fed suitable studies to derive reference doses for individual PCB congeners. Results: Evaluation of human epidemiological studies revealed several reports of adverse efects on sperm param eters linked to PCB exposures, although some studies reported improved semen quality. Our review of experimental animal studies found that treatments with PCBs afected semen quality, in most cases adversely. We found robust evi dence that PCB-118 and -169 were linked to declines in semen quality. Evidence for adverse efects of PCB-126, -132, -149, and -153 was moderate, whereas for PCB-77 it was slight and for PCB-180 indeterminate. Using widely accepted risk assessment procedures, we estimated reference dose values of 0.0029 Āµg/kg/day for PCB-118 and 0.00533 Āµg/kg/ day for PCB-169. In addition, we derived values for PCB-126: 0.000073 Āµg/kg/day, PCB-132: 0.0228 Āµg/kg/day, PCB-149: 0.656 Āµg/kg/day, and PCB-153: 0.0058 Āµg/kg/day. Conclusions: We found robust evidence for links between PCB exposure and deteriorations in semen quality, and derived reference doses for a set of congeners. We intend to use these values in combination with congener-specifcEuropean Joint Programme on Human Biomonitoring, HBM4EU (www.hbm4eu.eu), contract number 733032, Horizon 2020 programme
    • ā€¦
    corecore