Submitted by Wei Zheng and Michael Hughes, Chairpersons, 2017 SOT CE AM05
The 2017 Society of Toxicology (SOT) Continuing Education (CE) Program offers a wide range of courses that cover established knowledge in toxicology, as well as advanced techniques or approaches for those with experience in the field. This year there are 13 courses being held on Sunday, March 12, 2017, in Baltimore, Maryland. One of the CE courses, AM05, will provide dire-needed knowledge and innovative approaches for metal toxicological research and education. Metal-induced toxicities have been recognized for centuries. The most recent well-known incident is the drinking water contamination with lead in Flint, Michigan, which sparks social, economic, and ethnic consideration far beyond the metal toxicity in the general population. This basic course will introduce the audience to the novel concepts and technologies in metal toxicological research, from mechanistic interpretation to therapeutic intervention, and from novel technologies in diagnosis and quantification of metal body burden to the concept of “One Health” that integrates ecology, animal health, and human health as a whole system.
The introduction by Dr. Zheng will briefly review the current state of metal-induced toxicities due to worldwide environmental and occupational exposure. The lecture by Dr. John P. Wise will introduce the concept of “One Health,” an integrative approach recently highlighted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which embraces factors from ecology and environment to animal and human susceptibility for interpreting metal toxicities. This will be followed by the second lecture by Dr. Hughes to further extend the concept by providing a concise overview of general disposition (e.g., absorption) and mechanisms of metal toxicity (e.g., direct interaction with functional groups of critical proteins, generation of reactive oxygen species, and alteration of cell signaling pathway), and integrating these factors on the impact of metals on epigenetics and cancer stem cells.
Upon updating new concepts and theories in the current metal toxicological research, the course will turn to the diagnosis and therapeutic aspects of metal toxicities. The lecture by Dr. Ulrike Dydak will provide an overview of advanced medical imaging modalities such as MRI/MRS, PET, and XRF and their applications in early diagnosis of metal toxicities and monitoring of disease progression. The final lecture by Dr. Donald R. Smith will introduce new concepts and lessons learned from the past-decade practices and research in clinical treatment of metal toxicities within and beyond the traditional chelation therapy.
The course will benefit those who desire knowledge on novel mechanistic interpretation of metal toxicities, theories on metal toxicity treatment and intervention, and technical approaches in utilizing widely available imaging technologies that can be used to support research in metal toxicology. As the course introduces concepts and techniques that are equally applicable to other fields, researchers engaged in wider aspects of metal toxicology, such as neurotoxicology, nanotoxicology, carcinogenesis, risk assessment, and occupational health, will benefit by attending this course.