Availability, quality, and relevance of toxicogenomics data for human health risk assessment: A scoping review of the literature on trihalomethanes

Abstract

Human health risk assessment (HHRA)must be adapted to the challenges of the 21st century, and the use of toxicogenomics data in HHRA is among the changes that regulatory agencies worldwide are trying to implement. However, the use of toxicogenomics data in HHRA is still limited. The purpose of this study was to explore the availability, quality, and relevance to HHRA of toxicogenomics publications as potential barriers to their use in HHRA.We conducted a scoping review of available toxicogenomics literature, using trihalomethanes as a case study. Four bibliographic databases (including the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database) were assessed. An evaluation table was developed to characterize quality and relevance of studies included on the basis of criteria proposed in the literature. Studies were selected and analyzed by 2 independent reviewers. Only 9 studies, published between 1997 and 2015, were included in the analysis. Based on the selected criteria, criticalmethodological details were oftenmissing; in fact, only 3 out of 9 studies were considered to be of adequate quality for HHRA. No studies met > 3 (out of 7) criteria of relevance to HHRA (eg, adequate number of doses and sample size). This first scoping review of toxicogenomics publications on trihalomethanes shows that low availability, quality, and relevance to HHRA of toxicogenomics publications presents potential barriers to their use in HHRA. Improved reporting ofmethodological details and study design is needed in the future so that toxicogenomics studies can be appropriately assessed regarding their quality and value for HHRA.