title: The role of toxicology to characterize biomarkers for agrochemicals with potential endocrine activities.
abstract: The paper discusses current knowledge and possible research priorities on biomarkers of exposure, effect and susceptibility for potential endocrine activities of agrochemicals (dicarboximides, ethylene bisdithiocarbammates, triazoles, etc.). Possible widespread, multiple-pathway exposure to agrochemicals highlights the need to assess internal exposure of animals or humans, which is the most relevant exposure measure for hazard and risk estimation; however, exposure data should be integrated by early indicators predictive of possible health effects, particularly for vulnerable groups such as mother-child pairs. Research need include: non-invasive biomarkers for children biomonitoring; novel biomarkers of total exposure to measure whole endocrine disrupter-related burden; characterization of biomarkers of susceptibility, including the role of markers of nutritional status; anchoring early molecular markers to established toxicological endpoints to support their predictivity; integrating "omics"-based approaches in a system-toxicology framework. As biomonitoring becomes increasingly important in the environment-and-health scenario, toxicologists can substantially contribute both to the characterization of new biomarkers and to the predictivity assessment and improvement of the existing ones.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Safety and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy. alberto.mantovani@iss.it
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mantovani
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Maranghi
authors.forename: Cinzia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: La Rocca
authors.forename: Gian Mario
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Tiboni
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Clementi
mesh_terms: D016573:Agrochemicals / Q000145:classification / Q000633:toxicity*; D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis*; D052244:Endocrine Disruptors / Q000145:classification / Q000633:toxicity*; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D018570:Risk Assessment
chemical_list: D016573:Agrochemicals; D015415:Biomarkers; D052244:Endocrine Disruptors