Public Data Sources to Support Systems Toxicology Applications Allan Peter Davis1, Jolene Wiegers1, Thomas C
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in ScienceDirect Toxicology Public data sources to support systems toxicology applications Allan Peter Davis1, Jolene Wiegers1, Thomas C. Wiegers1 and Carolyn J. Mattingly1,2 Abstract metabolic pathways, interaction networks, and/or bio- Public databases provide a wealth of freely available infor- logical processes; and the outcome can be the perturbed mation about chemicals, genes, proteins, biological networks, biological system trying to return back to a normal state phenotypes, diseases, and exposure science that can be in- (resilience) or a new, and potentially, adverse state due tegrated to construct pathways for systems toxicology appli- to toxicity [2]. The toxicant may trigger multiple cations. Relating this disparate information from public different pathways simultaneously by interacting with repositories, however, can be challenging because databases different biological mediators, complicating under- use a variety of ways to represent, describe, and make avail- standing about the specific connectivity between indi- able their content. The use of standard vocabularies to anno- vidual events, mediators, and outcomes. As well, in the tate key data concepts, however, allows the information to be real world, humans are typically exposed simultaneously more easily exchanged and combined for discovery of new to mixtures of chemicals and drugs, further complicating findings. We explore some of the many public data sources understanding of toxic mechanisms of actions [3,4]. currently available to support systems toxicology and demon- strate the value of standardizing data to help construct The goal of systems toxicology is to discern and organize chemical information pathways. exposure and toxicogenomic events to help formalize an understanding for drug therapy, risk assessment, expo- Addresses e 1 Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, sure hazards, and toxicity to humans [5 9].
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