Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology

Medical toxicology is the science dealing with the diagnosis, management and prevention of poisons and other adverse health effects due to medications, environmental hazards, Occupational exposure to the harmful substances. Clinical toxicology is the branch which includes the science of the removal of poisonous toxins from the body. Clinical toxicologists mainly work in the hospitals and are in close contact with the pharmacology department. Hence clinical toxicologists and pharmacologists are closely related.

Food and nutritional toxicology emphasizes on the food components and the food toxins including the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of xenobiotics, allergenic and toxic constituent role of diet and nutrients in mutagenesis and carcinogenesis. It also deals with the toxins present in the food and food substances. The toxins released from the packaging material and associated components with the food.

Environmental toxicology is the study of toxic effects of chemicals on the human beings and all other living organisms on the earth. The toxicologists have a very important role in predicting the cause of the toxicity and hence take the necessary actions to prevent the toxicity to the environment. Toxicologists address constantly the changing environmental conditions and are concerned with the safety of the environment.

We live in the most modernized and industrialized world where we get exposed to the number of the chemicals and toxic substances which cause severe damage to the body and the environment. In this part the industrial workers are widely exposed to the chemicals which cause severe damage to the body. The industrial toxicology deals with the safety of workers and the various steps to be taken to prevent the bioaccumulation of the heavy metals.

Systems toxicology is the integration of classical toxicology with quantitative analysis of large networks of molecular and functional changes occurring across multiple levels of biological organization. The systems toxicology includes the enabling technology, molecular measurement, apical measurement and computational measurements. The final end of the research results in the safe drugs, environment protection, safe foods, and green chemistry.

Immunotoxicology is the science which emphasizes the various immune reactions which occur as a result of the new drugs and biological products. It also includes the In-vivo evaluation of the immune response and the In-vitro evaluation of the immune response. Recent trends in this area are the immunophenotyping and the immunoefficacy.

Humans are constantly exposed to the wide range of chemicals and toxins which lead to the chemical carcinogenesis. Toxic chemicals and pathogens can damage the DNA of the human cell and result in the cancer. Chemical carcinogenesis is the complex and step by step process which results in the formation of oncogenes.

Toxicity testing is mainly performed to the finished products such as the drugs, cosmetics, food additives. Toxicity testing is done to assess the safety of the product and prevent the toxicity of the product. Scientists and researchers perform the various toxicological testing procedures in order to access the safety of the product.

Risk assessment is the process of identification and analysing the risk associated with the toxic chemicals and toxicological studies. Different analytical techniques are used in the risk assessment of the toxins. Toxicogenomic  information has a potential role in the all aspects of the risk assessment process. Environmental toxicologists play a very important role in the risk assessment.

Toxins are the substances that can adversely affect the living organisms. They are present in a variety of the substances such as the food additives, cosmetics, food products, and a number of the other products. In order to prevent toxicity the toxicity testing is done which includes the toxicity testing markets. The toxicity testing markets have enormous growth

The recent emerging concepts of toxicology are the cellular and molecular mechanisms of the toxicity, genotoxicity and carcinogenicity, computational methods in toxicology and the biomarkers development for toxicity testing. Toxicology has seen a recent influx from other fields and added to its colours.

Molecular toxicology is a field concerned with the effects of various chemical components on living organism. Careers in molecular toxicology can include the applied fields of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals and academic research. Biochemical toxicology is the field which deals with the research on the enzymes and enzyme substrates that are drugs in the area of drug metabolism.

Developmental and reproductive toxicity is a special part of toxicology which comprises any effect of chemicals and active substances on mammalian reproduction and development. The investigations and the interpretation of the results should be related to all the other pharmacological and toxicological data available from the research and development.

Genetic toxicology is the study of genetic damage that results in alterations to heritable information. It is a complex science because there are a number of different types of genome damage, which arise through a diversity of mechanisms like the clastogenesis, mutagenesis, recombination, aneugenesis.  The relevance of genetic toxicology is clearly evident from the inheritable diseases.

The primary scope of toxicological studies in the drug development process is to evaluate the safety of potential drugs. This is accomplished using relevant animal models and validated procedures. The ultimate goal is to translate the animal model responses into an understanding of the risk for the human subjects. The drug toxicology play a very important role in assessing the safety of the drug.

During the development of the new drug to predict the toxicity, and other safety variables as well as the effectiveness of new products, traditional testing of chemicals, consumer products should be tested for safety in animal studies before being approved for human testing. There are various steps involved in the testing of the product for its toxicity. Product development toxicology is an emerging branch in the recent times.

Pharmacology is the branch of science which is concerned with the study of drug action. It is the study of the properties and reactions of drugs especially with relation to the therapeutic value. Pharmacology is the main branch of the medicine and pharmacy. Pharmacologists play a very important role in the pre-clinical testing of the new drugs. The other related subjects include the therapeutics, pharmacovigilance, pharmacogenomics.

Infants and children are quite different from adults in terms of societal, psychological, behavioural and medical perspectives. The branch of biology which deals with the drug disposition and metabolism in case of children is the developmental pharmacology. Since children are quite sensitive the dose of the drug need to be monitored for safety of the individual. Developmental pharmacology is a very important branch of pharmacology which has a unique place in pharmacology.

As there is progress in the field of science there is tremendous application of the pharmacology in the various fields. The applied pharmacology include all the novel techniques and discoveries in the field of the pharmacology and toxicology. Pharmacology is the multidisciplinary branch which has its application in the various other branches.