The opportunity to translate developmental toxicology into a therapeutic discipline
Since presentation of our view of translational developmental toxicology in 2013, numerous investigations from a wide range of approaches have added to the evidence underlying our core premise; namely that as the potential adverse developmental effects from a range of exposures are progressively defined, preventative or mitigative therapies can be conceived, assessed and ethically implemented. The spectrum of studies reported in recent years span a wide range of exposure categories and various developmental outcomes ranging from molecular and cellular to the organismal level up to and including human behavior. Since human exposures to chemicals, physical agents and social factors are inevitable, the human fetus is subject to effects that can have lifelong consequences. In order to apply the translational concept to developmental toxicology, established or potential therapeutic obstetrical, neonatal, childhood and adolescent interventions will be required. Those that undergo testing during developmentally sensitive intervals will likely derive from generally-regarded-as-safe (GRAS) or well-established/repurposed pharmaceutical options. Ultimately if we are to translate environmental health discoveries into safe and effective interventions, we must assert and characterize valid, applicable therapies such as GRAS treatments and eventually “ethical pharmaceuticals” for the protective care of these highly vulnerable young people. We can create a safe and efficacious environmental health portfolio of interventional options to improve human health that include both reduction/avoidance of exposure and specific preventative/mitigative/restorative therapeutics. In this chapter we will broadly update new insights that have been gained over the last 2 years regarding the progress of translational developmental toxicology toward becoming a therapeutic discipline.
