The development history of modern toxicology

In order to survive and multiply, in the process of fighting against various toxic substances from the outside world, human beings constantly discovered and understood poisons, and spent about 5000 years studying poisons for human use, which developed into modern toxicology in the 20th century. It can be seen that the whole development process of modern toxicology is the development process of human origin and civilization history.

Ancient people's understanding of poison and poisoning process

In primitive society, people made a living by gathering, hunting and fishing. In the process of getting food, they often eat poisonous animals and plants by mistake and cause poisoning. China's ancient book Huainanzi, in the chapter of "Training of Doing Things", said that "Shennong tasted a hundred herbs and encountered seventy poisons a day". After long-term practice, the ancients learned to distinguish toxic and non-toxic substances by the shapes, colors and tastes of many animals, plants and minerals, and recorded them in words. Zhou Li Tiangong called gall alum, cinnabar, realgar, purple stone and magnet "five poisons".

The ancients also used poison as a tool for hunting, war and murder. For example, in the 4th century BC, ancient Rome used poison as a killing tool. It was not until 82 BC that Sura issued a law prohibiting the use of poison as a killing tool. Various words about poison were gradually created and derived from the practice of the ancients. For example, the word "toxic" in English originally came from the Greek word "toxon", which means bow and arrow, and thus derived "toxicology". During this period, there were records of poison and poisoning in ancient Egypt and western books.

In the struggle against diseases, people have gradually accumulated experience in treating diseases with natural products. Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica, the first pharmacological work in ancient China, contains 252 kinds of plant drugs, 67 kinds of animal drugs and 46 kinds of mineral drugs, totaling 365 kinds, which are divided into upper, middle and lower categories. The ancients thought: the top grade "takes more clothes for a long time without hurting people"; China products are "non-toxic, toxic and suitable"; Inferior products are "toxic and not durable." It shows that the ancients have realized that drugs have toxic side effects and know the relationship between toxic side effects and the course of medication.

The relationship between doses. The "Etiology" of Sui Dynasty banknotes has a unique view on the etiology.

Song Ci in Song Dynasty mentioned that he died of taking poison (suicide or homicide) and put forward the method of poison identification earlier. He is regarded as the founder of forensic medicine.

In Ming Dynasty, Li Shizhen compiled Compendium of Materia Medica, which lasted for 20 years and had three drafts. This is a great work that has great influence on China and the world.

The Germination and Development of Modern Toxicology

1.

The study of modern toxicology began in16th century, with the background that Western Europe entered the capitalist era. With the progress of science and technology, productivity has advanced by leaps and bounds. After long-term scientific practice, a group of scholars engaged in scientific research have realized that it is necessary to get rid of understanding things only by experience and intuition and observe the regularity and essence of things through experiments. The most noteworthy thing is that the Swiss scientist Parra Celsus (1493 ~ 154 1) first laid the experimental foundation of toxicology, began to sprout the seeds of modern toxicology, got rid of the mode of intuitive and empirical research, and tried to observe the essence and laws of things by means of experimental research, analysis and comparison, logical reasoning and so on, and made unprecedented achievements. Parra Celsus is also a famous medical scientist. He has a famous saying, "What is poison? All substances are poisons, and there is nothing that is not poison. The correct dose distinguishes between poison and medicine. " Everything is poison, and nothing is non-toxic. Only the right dose can make the drug not become a poison. " It is clearly pointed out that the relationship between the dose of chemical substances and their toxicity is the central problem of toxicology. During this period, together with other scholars, he studied occupational lead poisoning, mercury poisoning, soot and its toxic hazards, and put forward early concepts of occupational toxicology, Forensic Toxicology and environmental toxicology, which laid the foundation for the origin of modern toxicology.

2. Development

Toxicology, as an independent discipline, was first proposed by Spanish scholar Orfila (1787~ 1853) in the19th century. /kloc-The beginning of the 9th century is the beginning of industrial revolution in europe. Many workers are engaged in heavy handicraft production in factories and mines, with poor working environment and lack of protection. Many serious acute poisoning incidents occurred, such as lead poisoning of ceramic workers, mercury poisoning and phosphorus poisoning of most mining workers, silicosis and formaldehyde poisoning of most miners. In order to meet the needs at that time, many scholars carried out a lot of experimental research work around chemicals exposed to various occupations. Magendie (1783~ 1855), Orfila (1787~ 1853) and Lei Wen (1854~ 1929) have successively conducted a series of experimental toxicological studies. He conducted experiments on thousands of dogs in France, and repeatedly observed that there was a "dose-effect (response) relationship" between toxic substances and the toxic effects of biological organisms, and established a chemical analysis method for identifying toxic substances in biological tissues and body fluids, which opened up autopsy materials and chemical analysis methods as legal evidence of poisoning for forensic medicine and criminology, and promoted the development of forensic medicine and criminology. 18 15 Orfila published the first toxicology monograph "Toxicology" (French version), proposing that toxicology is an independent discipline. At the same time, many scholars have carried out experimental research, such as the famous French physiologist Claude Bernard (18 13 ~ 1878), who studied the toxic effects and properties of carbon monoxide and curare. Until the end of 19, German scientists published many monographs on experimental methods and descriptions of various poisons, which promoted the maturity of modern toxicology. From the end of 19 to the beginning of the 20th century, modern toxicology became an independent discipline.

Formation and characteristics of modern toxicology

The 20th century is a period of great development of toxicology, and also an era of tenacious and rapid development of life science. It can be said that the development of modern toxicology and life science is synchronous, and the new theories and technologies of life science have promoted the rapid development of modern toxicology.

The discovery of the double helix structure of 1953 DNA reveals the mystery of life. The deciphering of genetic code, the establishment of the central rule of genetic information transmission and the establishment of recombinant DNA technology have promoted the concept and technology of molecular biology to penetrate into various fields of life science and modern toxicology, so after the 1940s, the branches of modern toxicology have mushroomed. There are more than 30 branches of modern toxicology in China, and academic exchanges are very active. Molecular toxicology and genetic toxicology have opened up new prospects for predicting carcinogenic chemicals after establishing and applying new molecular endpoint methods.

The formation and development of modern toxicology is based on modern toxicology. After more than one hundred years of development, it has perfected today's marginal and applied modern toxicology. Has the following characteristics:

1.The 20th century has developed into a multidisciplinary feature after the Indian era.

(1) Classification of industrial toxicology, environmental toxicology, food toxicology, military toxicology, drug toxicology, clinical toxicology, Forensic Toxicology, analytical toxicology, veterinary toxicology, feed toxicology, management toxicology, insect toxicology, animal toxicology, plant toxicology, radiation toxicology and toxicology history.

(2) Toxicology of liver, kidney, lung, blood, eye, nerve and spirit, behavior, immunity, reproductive development and skin classified by target organs.

(3) According to the mechanism research, it can be divided into biochemical toxicology, molecular toxicology, membrane toxicology, cell toxicology, genetic toxicology, receptor toxicology and quantum toxicology.

(4) Metal toxicology, pesticide toxicology, organic solvent toxicology, polymer toxicology and material toxicology are classified according to chemical substances.

The above branches of toxicology not only intersect with each other in the field of toxicology, but also with related disciplines in the field of life science, expanding the scope of toxicology research. It can be expected that there will be new branches of disciplines in the future.

2. The academic team is growing day by day, and international academic exchanges are frequent.

The United States is the first country in the world to establish the Society of Toxicology (1960) and to publish the professional journal Toxicology and Pharmacology (1958), which is a milestone in the development history of modern toxicology. It not only marks the maturity of modern toxicology, but also promotes the rapid development of toxicology. Since then, the international toxicology society and national toxicology societies have been established one after another, and academic conferences and international exchanges have been frequent. The number of papers is increasing year by year. On average, countries around the world hold more than 10 toxicology conferences every year, establish more than 70 professional magazines and publish 20 academic monographs. 25 species, 9 large-scale international toxicology conferences 1977~200 1 * * have been held and 9 papers have been published. From the publication of Chemical Abstracts in 1907 to the beginning of 199 1, 67,959 abstracts on toxicity and toxicology of toxicants have been collected, of which 199 1 collected only 12584 a year, which is the 20th century. The first American Toxicology Association had only 20 members. After 40 years of development, there are now more than 4000 members. The International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX) has a history of 25 years since the establishment of 1977. At that time, there were only 13 members of toxicology societies of countries and regions, but now it has increased to 43. The main members of IUTOX are more than 2,000 toxicologists from 37 countries and regions:

Following the establishment of 1960 American Toxicology Society, toxicology societies have been established in Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Europe, Japan, Poland and Russia. China Toxicology Society was founded in 1980s, which was in the period of great development of health toxicology. At this time, a team of toxicology departments has been formed, with more than 100 members, most of whom are distributed in scientific research units of preventive medicine. At that time, it was called "Health Toxicology Professional Committee of Chinese Preventive Medicine Association". 199365438+On February 9th, China Toxicology Society was formally established. In the same period, 16 secondary professional committees were established with more than 300 members. By September of 20001year, there were more than 30 registered members 1 100, secondary professional committees and local toxicology societies. 1997 China toxicology society has joined the international toxicology union and the Asian toxicology society. From 65438 to 0995, toxicologists from China in the United States established China Association of Toxicologists from the United States to serve the motherland, actively carried out academic exchanges with domestic toxicologists, held seminars on modern toxicology and its application in China, and published monographs on modern toxicology and its application life science.

Germany has established a post-graduation education model for toxicologists, which is the product of the combination of pedagogy and toxicology and provides the best education covering all disciplines of toxicology. Educated students can receive systematic theoretical training in various branches of toxicology and obtain the certificate of "Toxicologist" issued by the German Association of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology (DGPT). This move by Germany has attracted the attention of toxicology circles all over the world. 200 1 At the 9th Congress of the International Toxicology Union, experts from all countries unanimously agreed to establish an international certification body for toxicologists. Considering the future international cooperation, the state should set standards for the education and certification of a new generation of toxicologists. China has entered the threshold of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and there are frequent international cooperation and academic exchanges in toxicology. According to China's national conditions, it is helpful to develop a group of high-quality toxicologists to formulate certification procedures suitable for China.

3. Research institutions are constantly improving and research projects are more cutting-edge.

Governments, universities and enterprises have established various toxicology research institutions. For example, the National Cancer Institute of the United States is a famous national or military toxicology research institution in the United States, and the American Toxicology Planning Organization consists of seven national research units, among which the National Institute of Environmental and Health Sciences is the constituent unit, which is responsible for examining and approving projects funded by the state in the form of grants, grants or contracts every year. 1980 established 9,900 projects with a funding amount of 400 million US dollars. By 1992, it will increase to $800 million per year. 1998, the American Society of Toxicology and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NBEHS) plan to complete a major project "Environmental Genome Research", with a national investment of 60 million US dollars. The purpose of this study is to find genes susceptible to chemical damage. They plan to select 1000 people from major ethnic groups, sequence more than 200 genes in each person's genome, and then study their respective functions in detail, and conduct a health survey on the tested population to study the relationship between these key genes and various high-risk diseases in the tested population. This work is very arduous, complicated and costly, but once it is successful, it will overcome all kinds of intractable diseases of mankind and realize the long-cherished wish of mankind for generations.

World-famous large enterprises, such as Imperial Chemical Company, Dupont Company and Dow Company, have established toxicology research institutes or laboratories. Huge sums of money are invested in toxicology research and risk assessment every year. There are hundreds of independent research units in the United States alone. It is estimated that the world has access to the top scientists. They have excellent scientific equipment and concentrated a large number of high-quality scientific and technological talents, which has played a great role in the development of toxicology.

4. The development of "toxicology genomics" leads modern toxicology to a new era.

In the 20th century, due to the development of human society, social competition and the needs of human life, people took excessive exploitation and utilization of nature, and the industry developed rapidly, which led to the release of a large number of harmful factors (physics, chemistry and biology) into human living environment and endangered human health. People pay more and more attention to the biological effects and mechanisms of the interaction between environmental factors and organisms. Toxicology is facing a new challenge, that is, it is one of the main tasks of toxicology research to study the susceptibility mechanism of organisms to harmful factors in the environment, and to identify and evaluate them, especially to accurately judge the differences of individual genetic susceptibility. Because the research object of toxicology is closely related to human living environment, production activities and lifestyle, the unique role of toxicology in life science will be fully demonstrated in human social life and health in the 2 1 century. With the implementation and great success of the Human Gene Project (HGP), the rapidly developing high-tech in the field of life sciences has injected new impetus into the development of toxicology.

The development of toxicology in 2 1 century has entered a new stage. Terhard Zhinden, a famous toxicologist, pointed out at the 6th International Toxicology Congress on 1992 that experimental toxicology research can be divided into three eras: ① Discovery era: it lasted from the last century to the beginning of 2 1 century and reached its peak in 1980s; ② era of biological mechanism exploration: it began in 1940s, reached its peak in 1990s, and 2 1 century will continue to extend; ③ Age of individual expression: It began in 1980s and reached the peak of human development at the beginning of 2 1 century. The main connotation of individual expression is to emphasize the importance of individual genetic background exposed by environmental factors. Toxicologists in this era will identify a large number of characteristic gene expression markers and reveal the influencing factors that determine the toxic reaction of exposed individuals. Through a series of high-tech means, people pay more attention to the importance of the interaction between environmental factors and the body in toxic reactions and diseases (such as tumors) related to human environmental exposure. 200 1 At the 9th International Toxicology Congress held in Lisbon, Australia, Dr. Kenneth olden, a toxicologist, made an incisive exposition on "Gene Loading and Environmental Buckling of Ammunition". The successful implementation of the human genome project has led to the emergence of toxicology genomics, which has given toxicology a new development opportunity, enabled toxicologists to face the challenge of 2 1 century and ushered in a new era of toxicology development.