ABSTRACT
The biological diversity among humans can regulate (improve or decrease) the effect of xenobiotics. In fact, no two humans are equal and DNA alone cannot be responsible for susceptibility. The previous generation of biomarkers has contributed greatly to our understanding of risk and susceptibility related largely to genotoxic chemicals. More recently, developed biomarkers have considerable potential in molecular epidemiology because they reflect another important mechanism of certain diseases, such as cancer, namely, epigenetic alterations that affect the expression of genes and proteins. Current and future efforts to identify new polymorphisms in genes involved in environmental response will broaden the scope of potential genetic effect. Indubitably, the development of genomics and the new “omics” technologies derived for it represented a very big step to a better understanding of human organisms and their similarities and individual differences, making it possible to study individual susceptibilities. Furthermore, the applications of newly analytical tools in identifying biomarkers of susceptibility, or individual susceptibility, will help in generating data that can be used in any risk assessment procedure. Such a scenario will certainly contribute in improving public health.
