Molecular Toxicology

Welcome to Molecular Toxicology Laboratory

Molecular Toxicology is the rapidly growing discipline which involves the study of toxic effect of chemical compounds at the molecular and biochemical level. A team of molecular toxicologists investigate how the chemicals disrupt the biological processes causing ill effects and how to recuperate effects caused. Our laboratory uses a wide range of approaches to elucidate how xenobiotics perturb cellular signaling and genetic programs leading to the developmental defects and diseases such as cancer, neurodegeneration, etc.

Overview of the laboratory

Our research interests focus on the molecular mechanisms involved in the fluoride toxicity in both in vivo and in vitro models. Fluoride toxicity leads to oxidative stress thus causing apoptosis. The research strategy is to use tamarind fruit pulp and tamarind seed coat extract to prevent the damage caused by fluoride toxicity.

The long-term goal of the laboratory is to find the specific polyphenolic compounds present in the tamarind fruit pulp and seed coat extract that helps to recuperate the damage caused by fluoride. The other aspect which our laboratory focusses is that nanoparticles induced toxicity in mice and zebrafish model systems.

Recently, we reported the molecular mechanism involved in the anticancer effect of Emodin and the role of STAT3 signaling mechanism in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Fluoride toxicity

Our research group is focusing on molecular mechanisms of Fluoride (F) in several cellular processes with respect to potential physiological and toxicological implications including cardiotoxicity, neurobehavioral toxicity and pulmonary toxicities in in vivo and in vitro models. Preliminary biochemical observations performed in our laboratory demonstrate the role of tamarind fruit pulp and seed coat extracts found to be potential protection against fluoride induced toxicity.

We have documented certain dietary phytochemicals could intervene the signal transduction pathways such as Nrf2/Keap1, Nox families, PARP, TGFB1, PI3k-1/AKT, JAK/STAT, NFkß, Wnt/ß-catenin,MAPK/Erk1/2, p53, AMPK, IL-6 families, autophagy, death-receptor Signaling, mitochondrial control of apoptosis, notch and hedgehog in experimental models.

Nanoparticles toxicity

Zebrafish, Danio rerio, are small freshwater fish that originated from Ganges River in East India and Burma. Zebrafish is a powerful model system for studying vertebrate development, genetics, diseases and behaviour. They are closely related to humans in biological characteristics including genes, developmental processes, physiology and behaviour. The ease to maintain, manipulate and observe is the beneficial aspects of this model.

Our laboratory is interested in identifying the developmental deformities caused by nanoparticles in zebrafish. We use different nanoparticles to find whether any of them cause teratogenic effects.

“All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison and a remedy.”
- Philippus von Hohenheim (Paracelsus), Founder – The discipline of toxicology

“Almost all aspects of life are engineered at the molecular level, and without understanding molecules we can only have a very sketchy understanding of life itself.”
- Francis Crick