ICCVAM Communities of Practice Webinar 2022

New Approach Methodologies to Assess (Developmental) Neurotoxicity

January 25, 2022

Slides and video from the webinar are available below.

ICCVAM promotes the development and validation of toxicity testing methods that protect human health and the environment while replacing, reducing, or refining animal use. ICCVAM also provides guidance to test method developers and facilitates collaborations that promote the development of new test methods. This webinar, organized on behalf of ICCVAM by NICEATM, discussed new approach methodologies (NAMs) that are being considered or developed for assessing potential effects of chemicals on the nervous system. 

The nervous system has unique characteristics and can have different sensitivity to toxic substances compared to other organ systems. Effects of chemicals on the nervous system can be affected by concurrent exposures to other substances. During early life stages, exposure to neuroactive drugs and environmental toxins can interact and/or interfere with developmental processes of the brain, which can in turn result in structural and/or functional alterations.

Traditional (developmental) neurotoxicity tests use mammals, but the high cost and low throughput of these tests make them impractical to use for all chemicals of potential concern. In addition, it is challenging to correlate the interpretation of animal data to complex human neurological effects. Therefore, interest is increasing in exploring human cell-based assays, computational systems, and other alternatives to traditional animal tests that can be used to predict chemical effects on the developing and adult nervous system. In this webinar, two presentations featuring speakers from U.S. federal research and regulatory agencies described key issues and ongoing activities.

View Federal Register notice announcing the webinar (December 22, 2022) – View notice as webpage

Presentations

• Developmental Neurotoxicity Assessment Using In Vitro Assays
  Helena Hogberg, Ph.D., Division of the NTP, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
• Phenotype-based Mechanistic Studies for the Assessment of Drug Safety and Drug-drug Interactions in Zebrafish: Efficacy of Dietary Supplements
  Jyotshnabala Kanungo, Ph.D., National Center for Toxicological Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Run time of video is about 1 hr 30 min.