Bioinformatics and Biotechnology

Electronic Journal of Biotechnology ISSN: 0717-3458 Vol. 11 No. 3, Issue of July 15, 2008
© 2008 by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso -- Chile Received August 6, 2007 / Accepted January 4, 2008
DOI: 10.2225/vol11-issue3-fulltext-9
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Toxicity caused by para-substituted phenols on Tetrahymena pyriformis: The structure-activity relationships

Lorentz Jäntschi*
Department of Chemistry
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
400641 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Tel: 4 0264 401775
Fax: 4 0264 415054
E-mail: lori@chimie.utcluj.ro

Violeta Popescu
Department of Chemistry
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
400641 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Tel: 4 0264 401775
Fax: 4 0264 415054
E-mail: violeta@chimie.utcluj.ro

Sorana D. Bolboacă
Department of Medical Informatics and Biostatistics
"Iuliu Haţieganu" University of Medicine and Pharmacy
400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Tel:4 0264 431697
Fax: 4 0264 593847
Email: sbolboaca@umfcluj.ro

*Corresponding author

Financial support: The research supported by the UEFISCSU Romania through research grants ID_458 & ID_1051.

Keywords: para-substituted phenol derivatives, structure-activity relationships, Tetrahymena pyriformis, toxicity.

Abbreviations:

MDF: Molecular Descriptors Family
MLR: Multiple Linear Regression
NN(s): Neural Network(s)
qSARs: quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships
SAR(s): structure-activity relationship(s)

Abstract   Full Text

The toxicity of thirty para-substituted phenols on Tetrahymena pyriformis was modelled using an original methodology that uses the complex structural information of the compounds. Two models were built. The methodology allows atomic properties to be assigned to toxicity based on the selection of pairs of descriptors from the entire family, which is called Molecular Descriptors Family (MDF). One model has two independent structural descriptors and the other has four. The model with four descriptors proved to have high estimated and predictive abilities (over 97% of toxicity could be explained by structural information). The partial charge distribution by bonds (molecular topology) and space (molecular geometry) interaction proved to be related with the toxicity of para-substituted phenols on Tetrahymena pyriformis. The predictive ability of the model was tested by using the following methods: the cross-validation leave-one-out and the training versus test experiments. The comparisons among the models were performed using the correlated correlations method. The embedding of the complex information from the structure using MDF methodology can lead to further investigations of the mechanism of chemicals toxicity on Tetrahymena pyriformis.

Supported by UNESCO / MIRCEN network