CORRECTION article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Predictive Toxicology
Editorial: Toxicity Mechanisms, Exposure, Toxicokinetic and Risk Assessment Aspects of Metals, Toxic for Animals and Humans, Volume III
Provisionally accepted
- 1Jilin Agricultural Science and Technology College, Jilin, China
- 2Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
- 3Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, China
- 4Universidade Federal do Pampa - Campus Uruguaiana, Uruguaiana, Brazil
- 5University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana
- 6Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing, China
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environment pose significant health threats.Our topic encompasses 10 manuscripts, comprising 3 reviews and 7 articles.These manuscripts delve into the toxicology of drugs (ripretinib, sunitinib, monocrotaline, azvudine, and cantharidin), heavy metals (As, Pb, Hg, Cd, and Cu), and other toxic agents (dimethylacetamide) on the kidney, heart, and liver. The therapeutic potential of Cu chelators, small-molecule inhibitors of Cu, Cu ionophores, naringenin, and selenium in mitigating Cu, Pb, and Cd toxicity is also explored. This editorial aims to synthesize key findings on drug and heavy metal toxicity from recent studies and highlight the next research direction. Two reviews and three articles focus on the heavy metal toxicity of Cd, Pb, and Cu, which pollute the food chain and threaten animal health. Excessive intake of all heavy metals beyond the tolerance limit can lead to toxicity. Afzal A (2025) reviewed how heavy metals pollute the food chain and threaten animal health. After ingestion, heavy metals persist in the body for an extended duration, and the nature of exposure determines whether they induce acute or chronic, clinical or subclinical, or subtle toxicities. Liu ZC (2025) reviewed the biological processes involved in copper uptake, transport, excretion, and storage at both the cellular and systemic levels in terms of cuproptosis and heart failure. Chen ZX (2025) showed that concurrent exposure to PS-MPs and Cd aggravated toxic damage to the liver. Activation of carnitine palmitoyltransferase1 could alleviate PS-MPs and Cd-induced lipid accumulation and autophagy pathway blockage, thus reducing liver injury. Shi YN (2025) showed that naringenin (Nar) reduces CdCl2-induced kidney injury through alleviation of oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and autophagy. Liang YF (2025) showed that blood Cd and Pb levels were negatively correlated with handgrip strength. Selenium could mitigate this negative impact, but its effectiveness plateaus beyond 200 μg/L. Timely diagnosis, targeted antidotes, and management strategies can significantly mitigate the impact of heavy metals on livestock health, productivity, and reproductive performance. Dimethylacetamide is used as a solvent in the dye, leather, and acrylic manufacturing industries. Zhang XX (2025) aimed to elucidate the clinical characteristics associated with dimethylacetamide poisoning. Moreover, the incident calls for enhanced safety measures in industries using DMAC and 4,4'-ODA to prevent similar poisoning events.However, further research is warranted to elucidate the mechanisms and optimize clinical management strategies.Although scientific attention has been given to knowledge on adverse drug reactions, and heavy metal toxicity in humans and animals, more work needs to be done in the area of toxicology exposures, risk assessment, and toxicity mechanisms.
Keywords: toxicity mechanisms, Toxicity exposure, Toxicity Toxicokinetic, Risk Assessment, Animals and humans
Received: 28 Oct 2025; Accepted: 16 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Zhu, El-Demerdash, Yang, Machado, Boye and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yanzhu Zhu
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