Expression profiling in toxicology - potentials and limitations

Recent progress in genomics and proteomics technologies has created a uniqu e opportunity to significantly impact the pharmaceutical drug development p rocesses. The perception that cells and whole organisms express specific in ducible responses to stimuli such as drug treatment implies that unique exp ression patterns, molecular fingerprints, indicative of a drug's efficacy a nd potential toxicity are accessible. The integration into state-of-the-art toxicology of assays allowing one to profile treatment-related changes in gene expression patterns promises new insights into mechanisms of drug acti on and toxicity. The benefits will be improved lead selection, and optimize d monitoring of drug efficacy and safety in pre-clinical and clinical studi es based on biologically relevant tissue and surrogate markers. (C) 2000 El sevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.