Genomics and Toxic Substances: Part I—Toxicogenomics by Gary E
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Copyright © 2003 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120. 1-2003 ELR 33 ELR 10071 NEWS&ANALYSIS Genomics and Toxic Substances: Part I—Toxicogenomics by Gary E. Marchant dvances in genomics, the study of the structure and ticle will address the application of toxicogenomics to Afunction of our genetic make-up, are fundamentally toxic torts and environmental regulation; a subsequent transforming toxicology, the science of how toxic sub- companion article will address toxicogenetic applications. stances affect our bodies. These changes will inevitably spill After first describing the scientific background of toxico- over into the legal regimes that frequently rely on toxicolog- genomics, this Article explores some potential uses of ical data, including toxic torts and environmental regula- toxicogenomic data in regulation and litigation involving tion.1 Genomic data, and the techniques with which they are toxic substances. generated, have the potential to make toxic torts and envi- ronmental regulation more effective, efficient, and fair, but Scientific Background at the same time will present many new doctrinal, eviden- tiary, and ethical challenges. Toxicogenomics is defined “as the study of the relationship Two key applications of genomic data for toxic torts and between the structure and activity of the genome (the cellu- environmental regulation are2: (i) the study of the expres- lar complement of genes) and the adverse biological effects sion of genes in cells or tissues in response to exposure to a of exogenous agents.”4 A major focus of toxicogenomics is toxicant, known as toxicogenomics; and (ii) the identifica- to characterize changes in gene expression in cells or tissues tion of genetic variations affecting susceptibility to toxic after exposure to toxic substances.5 Such exposure invari- agents, sometimes referred to as toxicogenetics.3 This Ar- ably results, either directly or indirectly, in characteristic changes in gene expression6 These gene expression changes The author is Associate Professor and Executive Director, Center for the Study of Law, Science, and Technology, Arizona State University College 4. Marilyn J. Aardema & James T. MacGregor, Toxicology and Ge- of Law. J.D. (1990); M.P.P. (1990); Ph.D. (Genetics) (1986). Portions of netic Toxicology in the New Era of “Toxicogenomics”: Impact of this Article were presented at a National Institutes of Environmental “-Omics” Technologies, 499 Mutation Res. 13, 15 (2002). Health Sciences conference on Toxicogenomics in December 2001, and at presentations in 2002 to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for 5. A small proportion of the genes in any cell are “turned on” or “ex- Scholars, the Environmental Law Institute, and faculty colloquia at Seton pressed” in a given cell at any one time. Although different types of Hall Law School and Arizona State University College of Law. The author cells, e.g., skin, blood, nerve cells, within a body contain identical genetic information, they have very different functional and struc- appreciates the many helpful comments and questions from the partici- tural properties primarily because they have different subsets of pants at those events, including some particularly valuable suggestions genes that are expressed. One estimate is that approximately 25% of from Andrew Askland and Michael Saks. all genes are active (turned on) in a given cell type, and that on aver- 1. See, e.g., P. Trinia Simmons & Christopher J. Portier, Toxico- age about 5% of genes that are active in one cell type are different genomics: The New Frontier in Risk Analysis,23Carcinogenesis from the genes turned on in another cell type. Toby G. Rossman, 903, 903 (2002) (“the complete sequence of the human genome will Cloning Genes Whose Levels of Expression Are Altered by Metals: cause a fundamental paradigm shift in the science of risk assess- Implications for Human Health Research,38Am. J. Ind. Med. 335, ment”); Wendy Yap & David Rejeski, Environmental Policy in the 335 (2000). In addition to these differences in gene expression be- Age of Genetics, Issues in Sci. & Tech., Fall 1998, at 33. tween cell types, the gene expression in any one cell type varies over 2. Many other types of genetic data may be useful in environmental time in response to external stimuli. A gene is expressed by a process regulation and toxic torts, including deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) called transcription, in which a replicate of the functional DNA se- adducts, chromosomal aberrations, DNA breakage studies, reporter quence of the gene is created (known as messenger RNA (mRNA)), gene assays, and mutational spectra associated with specific chemi- which then moves from the cell nucleus into the cell cytoplasm to cals. See generally Stefano Bonassi & William W. Au, Biomarkers produce a protein, the primary functional and structural units of the in Molecular Epidemiology Studies for Health Risk Prediction, 511 cell. In addition to characterizing these gene expression changes, Mutation Res. 73 (2002). These applications are outside the scope “toxicogenomics” also generally encompasses other types of data of this Article. including profiling the proteins (proteomics) or metabolites (metabonomics) in a cell or tissue. See Aardema & MacGregor, su- 3. Emile F. Nuwaysir et al., Microarrays and Toxicology: The Advent pra note 4, at 14. of Toxicogenetics,24Molecular Carcinogenesis 153, 158 (1999); Richard J. Albertini, Developing Sustainable Studies on En- 6. See Nuwaysir et al., supra note 3, at 153 (“Almost without excep- vironmental Health, 510 Mutation Res. 317, 323 (2001). tion, gene expression is altered during toxicity, as either a direct or Toxicogenetics therefore involves the toxicological implications of indirect result of a toxicant exposure.”); Spencer Farr & Robert T. single genes, whereas the focus of toxicogenomics is on the entire Dunn, Concise Review: Gene Expression Applied to Toxicology,50 genome. A “genome” refers to the complete set of genes contained Toxicological Sci. 1, 1 (1999) (“The fundamental assumption of within a cell. This same distinction between focusing on one or a few toxicogenetics is that there are no toxicologically relevant outcomes susceptibility genes (toxicogenetics) versus studying the expression in vitro or in vivo, with the possible exception of rapid necrosis, that of the whole genome (toxicogenomics) in response to exposure to do not require differential gene expression.”); Russell S. Thomas et toxic substances also applies in the related field of genomic ap- al., Identification of Toxicologically Predictive Gene Sets Using proaches to pharmaceuticals. See Allen D. Roses, Pharmaco- cDNA Microarrays,60Molecular Pharmacology 1189, genetics,10Hum. Molecular Genetics 2261, 2261 (2001) 1189-90 (2001) (“[T]oxicity is commonly manifested as inflamma- (“[P]harmacognetics is defined as the study of variability in drug tion, proliferation, apoptosis, necrosis, and/or cellular differentia- responses attributed to hereditary factors in different populations. tion. All of these toxic endpoints are intimately linked to specific al- Pharmacogenomics is the determination and analysis of the ge- terations in gene expression.”); Albertini, supra note 3, at 321 (“It nome (DNA) and its products (RNA and proteins) as they relate to has long been known that cells almost always respond to noxious drug response.”). stimuli by altering gene expression.”). 33 ELR 10072 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 1-2003 Copyright © 2003 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120. may sometimes be the cause or in other cases the conse- quences known as complementary DNA (cDNA) that can quence of the early stages of a toxic response.7 be “tagged” with a flourescent marker.14 The cDNA sample Gene expression changes can be analyzed by collecting is then added to the microarray, and cDNA sequences will and characterizing messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) us- bind (or hybridize) to sites on the microarray that contain ing a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) microarray. A DNA DNA with a matching sequence. A laser scans the micro- microarray (sometimes also referred to as a gene chip or array and generates flourescent spots at the locations where DNA chip) consists of a set of many different single- the cDNA binds, and the intensity of the signal at each spot stranded genetic sequences fixed to a substrate, such as a will be proportional to the abundance of matching mRNA in glass slide or membrane, in a defined pattern. The genetic the original sample isolated from the treated or control markers can consist of short (500 to 2,000 base pair) DNA cells.15 Sophisticated computer programs are available to sequences that are complementary to, and thus bind to, “read” the microarrays and produce digital graphic read- genes of potential interest. Fifty thousand or more of these outs of the genes being expressed in the cells of interest. specific DNA sequences can be spotted (or printed) onto the DNA microarrays thus permit the almost instantaneous and fixed substrate in precise locations or spots on a grid, with simultaneous genome-wide detection of the expression of each spot on the array containing several million identical thousand of genes, even if the function of some of the genes copies of a DNA segment from a specific gene.8 Alterna- is unknown.16 tively, shorter synthesized DNA sequences, called This genome-wide or “global” gene expression analysis oligonucleotides, can be constructed directly onto the is a major advancement over previous methodologies which substrate using a process called photolithography.9 At only permitted analysis of the expression of one or two indi- least 20 companies have commercialized DNA micro- vidual genes at a time.17 Toxicity usually involves the induc- array products,10 and at least 1 manufacturer has already re- tion (up regulation) and repression (down regulation) of leased a commercial gene chip containing the entire hu- man genome.11 14. Jennifer Medlin, Array of Hope for Gene Technology, 109 Envtl. DNA microarrays can be used to identify and character- Health Persp. A34, A35-36 (2001).