Projects
14: Development of chemical sensors and affinity-directed fractionation techniques (SENATE).
Development of chemical sensors for endocrine-disrupting effects.
New, fast and robust analytical tools are required to measure the endocrine-disrupting effects of chemicals. Here, the potential of chemical sensors to meet this need will be investigated.
Suter Marc J-F, EAWAG, Dübendorf
e-mail: marc.suter@eawag.ch
Background
Environmental endocrine disruptors and their effect on human fertility have become a worldwide public concern. The sources of these environmental estrogens are numerous. Wastewater treatment plants can, for example, discharge them into aquatic environments, polymer materials can release them into ambient air, or they can be absorbed from health care products. Fast-acting and robust analytical tools are urgently required for high throughput screening of the endocrine-disrupting effects of chemicals in daily use.
Aim
The intention of this project is to investigate the potential for producing robust and fast-acting chemical sensors to test for possible estrogenic effects of industrially produced chemicals. These sensors, based on the affinity between a protein and a ligand, will provide an alternative method of measurement to precede the in vitro and in vivo assays currently used.
Significance
A rapid screening technique could significantly reduce costs and the need to carry out tests on animals. Such a technique would measure the non-covalent interaction of a protein such as the estrogen receptor and a ligand under natural conditions, i.e. in solution.
Ligand binding is determined using mass spectroscopy. In a very rough approximation it reflects the potential of a chemical to be hormonally active, thus allowing the number of chemicals that need further in vitro or in vivo evaluation to be reduced. The advantages of the chemical sensor compared to in vitro tests are: speed, the potential for automation and avoidance of false negative results which may occur through inhibition in in vitro assays.
The results should be useful in helping government agencies and the chemical industry in their efforts to assess the risk of endocrine disruption by man-made chemicals, new and old, which might be released into the environment.