Toxicology is the study of harmful effects of agents on people, animals, and other living organisms. Toxicology can be defined as “the study of all the adverse effects resulting from the interaction of chemicals or physical agents with living organisms”. Toxicology is a combination of biology and chemistry, with elements of physical and computational sciences, that leads to a wide variety of career opportunities. The field of toxicology provides the excitement of science and research while contributing to the well-being of current and future generations.

Factors Influencing Toxicology

Factors that influence chemical toxicity include the dosage, duration of exposure, route of exposure, species, age, sex, and environment. Toxicologists are experts on poisons and poisoning. There is a movement for evidence-based toxicology as a part of the larger movement towards evidence-based practices. Toxicologists study the security and biological effects of medicine, chemicals, agents, and other substances on living organisms. They develop methods to work out harmful effects, the dosages that cause those effects, and safe exposure limits. Toxicology is currently contributing to the sector of cancer research, since some toxins are often used as drugs for killing tumor cells. One prime example of this is often Ribosome Inactivating Proteins, tested within the treatment of Leukemia.

Importance of Drug Dose

 The father of modern toxicology, Paracelsus, historically stated "Only the dose is the poison.' The dose of the substance is an important factor in toxicology, as it has a significant relationship with the effects experienced by the individual. As a result, the dose is the primary means of classifying the toxicity of the chemical, as it reflects the quantity of the chemical that the affected person has been exposed to. A dose is a measured quantity of a medicine, nutrient, or pathogen which is delivered as a unit. The greater the quantity delivered, the larger the dose. Doses are most commonly measured for compounds in medicine. The term is usually applied to the quantity of a drug or other agent administered for therapeutic purposes, but may be used to describe any case where a substance is introduced to the body. Drug dose frequency is called dosage regimen. Designing the correct dosage regimen is important for achieving the desired therapeutic efficacy and avoiding undesired effects. Because of significant homogeneity among humans, the dosage regimen is calculated on a population basis. Despite the same dose of drug, it produces variations in pharmacological response, which is generally attributed to intersubject variability. This intersubject variability leads to pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic variations for the same drug administered in the same frequency in different individuals.

Through exploring the effects that drugs and medical procedures have on humans, medical toxicologists uncover the adverse effects of medical treatments and establish proper dosage and exposure guidelines for substances. They typically work in areas such as drug abuse, chemical exposures, poison or envenomations (venom from an animal bite or sting), and more. Toxicologists play a critical role in the field of medicine, where they work on the development of new drugs or treatments to determine their safety and regulated use. Medical toxicologists in hospital emergency departments also work directly with patients who have been exposed to unsafe levels of toxins.

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Regards,

Kathy Andrews
Journal of Clinical Toxicology