Biomarkers of Exposure to Toxic Substances. Volume 1. Global Experimental Design: Biomarker Discovery for Early Prediction of Organ-Selective Toxicity

Abstract : The work described in the following five reports was initiated to discover, down-select, and prevalidate biomarkers of toxic substance effects within the warfighter before health and operational performance are reduced. Using the emerging biotechnologies of toxicogenomics, proteomics, metabonomics, and computer modeling, this effort focused on identification of organ-selective toxic effects to militarily relevant chemical exposure(s) before significant decrement jeopardizes mission performance and detrimental effects are manifested. Results indicate blood and urine samples could be used to detect very low level changes (using either simple statistics (p0.05) or computer-based multi-dimensional statistical analysis) in either one family or combined molecules from families of messenger RNA, proteins, or metabolites post-exposure to several known toxic chemicals.