RHA™ anti-Acetochlor monoclonal antibody, clone ATC

Assessment of skin sensitization potential is an important component of the safety evaluation process for agrochemical products. Recently, non-animal approaches including the KeratinoSens (TM) assay have been developed for predicting skin sensitization potential. Assessing the utility of the KeratinoSens (TM) assay for use with multi-component mixtures such as agrochemical formulations has not been previously evaluated and is a significant need. This study was undertaken to evaluate the KeratinoSens (TM) assay prediction potential for agrochemical formulations. The assay was conducted for 8 agrochemical active ingredients (AIs) including 3 sensitizers (acetochlor, meptyldinocap, triclopyr), 5 non-sensitizers (aminopyralid, clopyralid, florasulam, methoxyfenozide, oxyfluorfen) and 10 formulations for which in vivo sensitization data were available. The KeratinoSens (TM) correctly predicted the sensitization potential of all the AIs. For agrochemical formulations it was necessary to modify the standard assay procedure whereby the formulation was assumed to have a common molecular weight. The resultant approach correctly predicted the sensitization potential for 3 of 4 sensitizing formulations and all 6 non-sensitizing formulations when compared to in vivo data. Only the meptyldinocap-containing formulation was misclassified, as a result of high cytotoxicity. These results demonstrate the promising utility of the KeratinoSens (TM) assay for evaluating the skin sensitization potential of agrochemical AIs and formulations. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Herbicides have been widely used to control weeds in croplands; however, their effects on greenhouse gas emissions remain unclear. The effects of three wheat herbicides (acetochlor, AC; tribenuron-methyl, TBM; fenoxaprop-p-ethyl, FE) and two rice herbicides (butachlor, BC; bensulfuron-methyl, BSM) on N2O and CH4 emissions were investigated in this study. In the wheat growing season, applications of AC and FE + TBM significantly reduced N2O emissions by 31% compared with no herbicide use (p = 0.001). In the rice growing season, the application of BC significantly reduced CH4 emissions by 58% (p = 0.022), and BSM significantly reduced N2O emissions by 27% (p = 0.040); however, no significant difference among treatments with regard to the aggregate emissions of N2O and CH4 in the CO2 equivalent for the 100-year horizon was observed (p > 0.05). Relative to control plots, which were not treated with herbicides, the combined application of the herbicides FE and TBM in the wheat season led to a significant decrease in greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) by similar to 41% (p = 0.002), and the application of BC together with BSM reduced GHGI by 22% in the rice season, although this reduction was not statistically significant (p = 0.158). Further investigation suggested that the inhibitory effect of herbicides on N2O emissions in the wheat field could be ascribed to low soil ammonium nitrogen and less abundance of denitrifying bacteria. The inhibitory effects of separate applications of BC on CH4 emissions in rice fields, in contrast, were linked to high soil nitrate nitrogen and urease activity. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.