Van Der Kraak Glen J, Hosmer Alan J, Hanson Mark L, Kloas Werner, Solomon Keith R
Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph , Guelph, ON , Canada.
Crit Rev Toxicol. 2014 Dec;44 Suppl 5:1-66. doi: 10.3109/10408444.2014.967836.
A quantitative weight of evidence (WoE) approach was developed to evaluate studies used for regulatory purposes, as well as those in the open literature, that report the effects of the herbicide atrazine on fish, amphibians, and reptiles. The methodology for WoE analysis incorporated a detailed assessment of the relevance of the responses observed to apical endpoints directly related to survival, growth, development, and reproduction, as well as the strength and appropriateness of the experimental methods employed. Numerical scores were assigned for strength and relevance. The means of the scores for relevance and strength were then used to summarize and weigh the evidence for atrazine contributing to ecologically significant responses in the organisms of interest. The summary was presented graphically in a two-dimensional graph which showed the distributions of all the reports for a response. Over 1290 individual responses from studies in 31 species of fish, 32 amphibians, and 8 reptiles were evaluated. Overall, the WoE showed that atrazine might affect biomarker-type responses, such as expression of genes and/or associated proteins, concentrations of hormones, and biochemical processes (e.g. induction of detoxification responses), at concentrations sometimes found in the environment. However, these effects were not translated to adverse outcomes in terms of apical endpoints. The WoE approach provided a quantitative, transparent, reproducible, and robust framework that can be used to assist the decision-making process when assessing environmental chemicals. In addition, the process allowed easy identification of uncertainty and inconsistency in observations, and thus clearly identified areas where future investigations can be best directed.
开发了一种定量证据权重（WoE）方法，以评估用于监管目的的研究以及公开文献中报告除草剂阿特拉津对鱼类、两栖动物和爬行动物影响的研究。WoE分析方法包括对观察到的反应与直接与生存、生长、发育和繁殖相关的顶端终点的相关性进行详细评估，以及对所采用实验方法的强度和适用性进行评估。为强度和相关性分配了数值分数。然后，相关性和强度分数的平均值用于总结和权衡阿特拉津对感兴趣生物的生态显著反应的证据。总结以二维图的形式直观呈现，该图显示了对一种反应的所有报告的分布情况。对来自31种鱼类、32种两栖动物和8种爬行动物研究的1290多个个体反应进行了评估。总体而言，证据权重表明，阿特拉津可能会在有时在环境中发现的浓度下影响生物标志物类型的反应，如基因和/或相关蛋白质的表达、激素浓度和生化过程（如解毒反应的诱导）。然而，就顶端终点而言，这些影响并未转化为不良后果。证据权重方法提供了一个定量、透明、可重复且稳健的框架，可用于在评估环境化学品时协助决策过程。此外，该过程便于识别观察结果中的不确定性和不一致性，从而明确确定未来调查的最佳方向。
