Contents

#### **Preface XI**


Preface

by Peptide Toxins".

scribed in this book.

appreciatively acknowledged.

The book *Neurotoxins* was envisaged to serve as a "one-stop reference" for selected current topics, including translational cell models, various compounds and related neurotoxic and/or therapeutic effects, biomarkers, and advanced decision trees for diagnosing neuro‐ toxicity. The book is organized into eight chapters: (1) "Using Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Neural Cultures to Assess Safety of New Drugs and Chemicals," (2) "Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Human Glutamatergic Neurons as a Platform for Mechanis‐ tic Assessment of Inducible Excitotoxicity in Drug Discovery," (3) "Use of the Model Organ‐ ism *Caenorhabditis elegans* to Elucidate Neurotoxic and Behavioral Effects of Commercial Fungicides," (4) "Neurotoxins and Autism," (5) "Botulinum Neurotoxin: A Multifunctional Protein for the Development of New Therapeutics," (6) "Resistance to Botulinum Toxins in Aesthetics," (7) "Developmental Neurotoxicity of Fluoride: A Quantitative Risk Analysis to‐ ward Establishing a Safe Dose in Children," and (8) "Targeting Acid Sensing Ion Channels

A significant challenge for toxicologists is understanding the unique signaling mechanisms responsible for neurotoxins. To address this issue, tactical approaches including but not lim‐ ited to high-throughput assays as well as epidemiological data have been emphasized in the context of inducible neurotoxicity, which may progress silently in both humans and ani‐ mals, before remarkable late-stage signs are evident. Hence, the needs and utilities for more predictive translational models to enable mechanistic investigations have been concisely de‐

This book was developed to serve as an open-access resource to academic, pharmaceutical, and environmental scientists, as well as students. Thus, I am sincerely grateful to the au‐ thors and peer reviewers for their contributions that helped to make this a benchmark publi‐ cation. The astute assistance, guidance, and dedication of the *IntechOpen* staff are

**J. Eric McDuffie**

USA

Janssen Research and Development, LLC
