Due to the high cost and long duration of traditional testing methods for developmental neurotoxicity (DNT), only a small fraction of chemicals that humans are exposed to have been assessed for DNT activity. In order to ensure public safety, human-predictive methods for DNT detection that are faster and less resource intensive are urgently required. Using Caenorhabditis elegans, a novel worm Development and Activity test (wDAT) has been designed that uses a relatively inexpensive small-animal activity tracker and takes less than 4 days to complete. The wDAT was able to detect both developmental delay and hyperactivity for arsenic, lead, and mercury, heavy metals that are known human developmental neurotoxins and have been associated with hyperactivity in children. Lithium was also tested as a control developmental toxin that is not considered a mammalian neurotoxin. With the wDAT, lithium induced developmental delay but not hyperactivity. This initial assessment of a new assay for DNT detection indicates that the wDAT has potential for detecting at least some types of mammalian developmental neurotoxins. A planned 20-compound validation study will clarify the utility of the wDAT for predicitive toxicology.

由于开发神经毒性（DNT）的传统测试方法的成本高且持续时间长，因此仅评估了人类所接触的一小部分化学药品的DNT活性。为了确保公共安全，迫切需要用于DNT检测的人类预测方法，该方法更快且资源占用更少。使用秀丽隐杆线虫，已经设计了一种新颖的蠕虫发育和活动测试（wDAT），该测试使用相对便宜的小型动物活动跟踪器，并且只需不到4天即可完成。wDAT能够检测到砷，铅和汞等重金属的发育延迟和活动亢进，这些重金属是已知的人类发育神经毒素，与儿童活动过度有关。还测试了锂作为不被认为是哺乳动物神经毒素的对照发育毒素。使用wDAT时，锂诱导发育延迟，但不会引起过度活跃。对DNT检测新方法的初步评估表明，wDAT具有检测至少某些类型的哺乳动物发育神经毒素的潜力。计划中的20个化合物的验证研究将阐明wDAT在预测毒理学中的实用性。