Criteria to evaluate the reliability of interaction studies with insecticidal proteins

This paper recommends five criteria to evaluate the reliability of interaction studies with insecticidal proteins. However, these criteria are broadly applicable to an interaction analysis with any type of substance. The recommended criteria reflect the consensus of the literature on interaction analysis from decades of research in fields such as pharmacology and toxicology. The criteria can be used to interrogate the experimental design, assay methodology, data analysis, and interpretation of the results. These criteria will be useful to researchers to help identify the strengths and potential weaknesses of interaction studies and to help define the limits of interpretation of the data. The criteria will also be useful to risk assessors evaluating the reliability of interaction data as part of an environmental risk assessment, and to inform a weight of evidence analysis when there are contradictory results. In addition, these criteria can be used prospectively by researchers to help avoid common pitfalls that are apparent in some interaction studies. Five examples have been provided, with studies from the literature, that demonstrate how these criteria can be objectively and consistently applied to score the reliability of interaction studies with insecticidal proteins that differ in design and methodology.