GSE196372
Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: An Integrated Approach to Genetic Safety Testing using the TGx-DDI Genomic Biomarker and High-Throughput CometChip® [Sequencing]
The TGx-DDI is a transcriptomic biomarker used to predict the DNA damage-inducing (DDI) capability of chemicals by providing mechanistic information to aid in the interpretation of positive genotoxicity data. The biomarker was developed within the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) and measures transcriptional changes in a set of primarily p53-responsive genes. We investigated three antibiotic drugs, nitrofurantoin (NIT), novobiocin sodium salt (NOV) and metronidazole (MTZ), with a long history of clinical use in human and/or veterinary applications. While all three drugs are considered safe, there is some evidence of chromosome damage with NIT and NOV. We conducted high-throughput CometChip and TGx-DDI assays to evaluate the drugs in a parallel test strategy to explore their toxicity using these newer mechanism-based tests. An extended concentration-response analysis was conducted in human TK6 cells (from 0 to 1 mM). The alkaline CometChip assay was used to measure DNA damage, while TGx-DDI was applied using TempO-Seq and NanoString technologies (in two different laboratories) to confirm reproducibility of the results. The CometChip was negative for all three drugs except at overtly cytotoxic concentrations, which were eliminated from the gene expression analysis. NIT and MTZ were classified as non-DDI by TGx-DDI at all concentrations tested. NOV classified as DDI at the highest concentrations tested. NOV is bacterial DNA-gyrase inhibitor that also acts as a topoisomerase II inhibitor at high concentrations. The TGx-DDI classification results were identical across laboratories/technologies. This case study demonstrates the utility of TGx-DDI to de-risk NIT and NOV, and the reproducibility of the biomarker. Overall design: Examination of the complementarity of two high-throughput genotoxicity tests, the CometChip® assay to assess DNA damage and TGx-DDI biomarker analysis for chemical classification using nCounter® and TempO-Seq® gene expression technologies, following exposure to three case study drugs in human TK6 cells. Furthermore, the reproducibility of the TGx-DDI biomarker was examined.