Comparative Toxicogenomics Database: A tool to investigate the effects of environmental exposures on the etiology of Alzheimer’s disease

Background Most human diseases involve interactions between genetic and environmental factors. Although the environment is implicated in most chronic diseases, the etiology and mechanisms of action underlying these diseases remain unclear. It is estimated that more than 80,000 chemicals are currently used in commerce, challenging elucidation about chemical mechanisms‐of‐action and prioritization of environmental health research. Integration of diverse data is required to understand environment‐disease associations, mechanisms of chemical action, toxicity prediction and development of effective therapeutic interventions. Method The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD; http://ctdbase.org) was launched publicly to address an unmet need for a public data resource dedicated exclusively to advancing understanding about environment‐disease connections. CTD provides a combination of richly annotated data describing chemical‐gene‐phenotype‐disease interactions, exposure information, and novel analysis tools that enable user‐driven discoveries about environmental influences on human health. Results Currently, CTD provides >2.5 million manually curated relationships for 16,800 chemicals; 52,000 genes/proteins; 5,500 phenotypes; and 7,200 diseases. The value of CTD has been specifically leveraged for a range of chronic and neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. Conclusion There is growing evidence of environmental influences on the etiology of a range of neuropsychiatric syndromes. This presentation will provide an overview of CTD content and functionality and how it can be used to explore environmental influences on the etiology and underlying mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders.