Virtual screening for environmental pollutants: structure-activity relationships applied to a database of industrial chemicals. 2006

Tomas Oberg
University of Kalmar, Department of Biology and Environmental Science, SE-391 82 Kalmar, Sweden. tomas.oberg@hik.se

The current risk paradigm calls for individual consideration and evaluation of each separate environmental pollutant, but this does not reflect accurately the cumulative impact of anthropogenic chemicals. In the present study, previously validated structure-activity relationships were used to estimate simultaneously the baseline toxicity and atmospheric persistence of approximately 50,000 compounds. The results from this virtual screening indicate fairly stable statistical distributions among small anthropogenic compounds. The baseline toxicity was not changed much by halogen substitution, but a distinct increase seemed to occur in the environmental persistence with increased halogenation. The ratio of the atmospheric half-lives to the median lethal concentrations provides a continuous scale with which to rank and summarize the incremental environmental impacts in a mixture-exposure situation. Halogenated compounds as a group obtained a high ranking in this data set, with well-known pollutants at the very top: DDT metabolites and derivatives, polychlorinated biphenyls, diphenyl ethers and dibenzofurans, chlorinated paraffins, chlorinated benzenes and derivatives, hydrochlorofluorocarbons, and dichlorononylphenol. Environmentally friendly chemicals that obtained the lowest rank are nearly all hydroxylated and water-soluble. Virtual screening can assist with "green chemistry" in designing safe and degradable products and enable assessment of the efficiency in chemicals risk management.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007928 Lethal Dose 50 The dose amount of poisonous or toxic substance or dose of ionizing radiation required to kill 50% of the tested population. LD50,Dose 50, Lethal
D002617 Chemical Industry The aggregate enterprise of manufacturing and technically producing chemicals. (From Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed) Industry, Chemical,Chemical Industries,Industries, Chemical
D004353 Drug Evaluation, Preclinical Preclinical testing of drugs in experimental animals or in vitro for their biological and toxic effects and potential clinical applications. Drug Screening,Evaluation Studies, Drug, Pre-Clinical,Drug Evaluation Studies, Preclinical,Drug Evaluations, Preclinical,Evaluation Studies, Drug, Preclinical,Evaluation, Preclinical Drug,Evaluations, Preclinical Drug,Medicinal Plants Testing, Preclinical,Preclinical Drug Evaluation,Preclinical Drug Evaluations,Drug Screenings,Screening, Drug,Screenings, Drug
D004785 Environmental Pollutants Substances or energies, for example heat or light, which when introduced into the air, water, or land threaten life or health of individuals or ECOSYSTEMS. Environmental Pollutant,Pollutant,Pollutants,Pollutants, Environmental,Pollutant, Environmental
D006219 Halogens A family of nonmetallic, generally electronegative, elements that form group 17 (formerly group VIIa) of the periodic table. Halogen,Group 17 Elements,Elements, Group 17
D013329 Structure-Activity Relationship The relationship between the chemical structure of a compound and its biological or pharmacological activity. Compounds are often classed together because they have structural characteristics in common including shape, size, stereochemical arrangement, and distribution of functional groups. Relationship, Structure-Activity,Relationships, Structure-Activity,Structure Activity Relationship,Structure-Activity Relationships
D014584 User-Computer Interface The portion of an interactive computer program that issues messages to and receives commands from a user. Interface, User Computer,Virtual Systems,User Computer Interface,Interface, User-Computer,Interfaces, User Computer,Interfaces, User-Computer,System, Virtual,Systems, Virtual,User Computer Interfaces,User-Computer Interfaces,Virtual System
D016208 Databases, Factual Extensive collections, reputedly complete, of facts and data garnered from material of a specialized subject area and made available for analysis and application. The collection can be automated by various contemporary methods for retrieval. The concept should be differentiated from DATABASES, BIBLIOGRAPHIC which is restricted to collections of bibliographic references. Databanks, Factual,Data Banks, Factual,Data Bases, Factual,Data Bank, Factual,Data Base, Factual,Databank, Factual,Database, Factual,Factual Data Bank,Factual Data Banks,Factual Data Base,Factual Data Bases,Factual Databank,Factual Databanks,Factual Database,Factual Databases
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