Enhancing toxicity prediction through adverse outcome pathways: A comprehensive approach

Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs) have emerged as a crucial framework in the field of toxicology, providing a structured means of understanding the mechanistic link between molecular events and adverse health outcomes. These pathways offer a systematic approach to connect biological data with toxicological effects, enabling researchers to predict toxicity based on early biological perturbations. Despite the promise AOPs hold, there are ongoing challenges in developing comprehensive AOP networks that encompass the diversity of toxicological responses observed in various biological systems. Current research highlights significant advancements in AOP development; however, there still exists a gap in fully operationalizing these pathways for predictive risk assessment.

This Research Topic aims to explore the construction, validation, and application of AOPs, with a particular focus on harnessing these pathways for improved predictive toxicity models. By addressing critical questions such as how to integrate various data sources and enhance the reliability of AOPs, the research seeks to advance our understanding of toxicological processes and contribute to more accurate predictions of chemical safety. This exploration will involve testing hypotheses related to the connectivity and applicability of AOPs across different chemical and exposure scenarios.

To gather further insights in the scope of AOP development and application for toxicity prediction, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

Strategies for constructing and validating novel AOPs

Integration of AOPs with computational modeling and high-throughput screening

Case studies illustrating the application of AOPs in regulatory science

Cross-disciplinary approaches to link AOPs with human health outcomes

Challenges and solutions in the standardization and sharing of AOP data

This Research Topic will comprise various article types, including original research, review articles, and case studies.

The topic editor Karolina Jagiełło was employed by the QSAR lab Ltd. The remaining editors declare that the proposal was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.