Predicting Chemical Toxicity And Fate

Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships (QSARs) are increasingly used to predict the harmful effects of chemicals to humans and the environment. The increased use of these methods in a variety of areas (academic, industrial, regulatory) results from a realization that very little toxicological or fate data is available on the vast amount of chemicals to which humans and the environment are exposed. Predicting Chemical Toxicity and Fate provides a comprehensive explanation of the state-of-the-art methods that are available to predict the effects of chemicals on humans and the environment. It describes the use of predictive methods to estimate the physiochemical properties, biological activities, and fate of chemicals. The methods described may be used to predict the properties of drugs before their development, and to predict the environmental effects of chemicals. These methods also reduce the cost of product development and the need for animal testing. This book fills an obvious need by providing a comprehensive explanation of these prediction methods. It is a practical book that illustrates the use of these techniques in real life scenarios. This book will demystify QSARs for those students unsure of them, and professionals in environmental toxicology and chemistry will find this a useful reference in their everyday working lives.

Forecasting the Environmental Fate and Effects of Chemicals is the first book to address specifically the issue of forecasting in environmental toxicology and chemistry from a methodological, regulatory and practical perspective. It is becoming increasingly important for environmental toxicologists and chemists to be able to forecast the fate and effects of chemicals by using existing information to predict the future. Providing a unique and timely opportunity for active researchers and students to obtain in a single volume the 'state of the art' in this expanding field, this text discusses how forecasts can be made by: * using ecotoxicological endpoints at different levels of biological organisation * measuring and modelling chemical fate in biotic and abiotic environments * adopting difference quantitative frameworks Written by an international team of scientists, this text will be essential reading for postgraduate and advance undergraduate students studying ecotoxicology, toxicology, chemistry and environmental statistics aswell as industrial and academic research scientists in environmental toxicology, environmental chemistry and those involved in risk management.

This book defines the use of computational approaches to predict the environmental toxicity and human health effects of organic chemicals.

Concern over the effects of chemicals in the environment has been increasing for many years. Environmental contamination by DDT, Aldrin, Dieldrin, mercury, PCBs, organotins and many other sub stances are all part of the public consciousness and have led to widespread attention to this topic. Some of the concerns have arisen because human health has been affected when contaminants have been consumed via the food chain-for instance in the case of 'Minimata disease' in Japan. In other cases, direct effects on other components of ecosystems have given cause for alarm. The toxic effects which any chemical can cause are a function of exposure and innate toxicity, i.e. of the ability to reach in sufficient quantity a site where a biological process can be disrupted and of the tendency to cause disruption when it gets there. The processes by which chemicals reach sites of toxic action are the subject of this book, and are a fundamental consideration in ecotoxi cology. When a chemical enters the environment e.g. via a spillage or in an effluent, it is potentially subject to a wide variety of processes which may eliminate it from the environment completely, modify it into a more or less harmful substance, or transfer it to another part of the environment. The processes involved are complex and highly variable, but it is essential to increase our understanding of them.

A comprehensive overview of techniques and systems currently utilized in predictive toxicology, this reference presents an in-depth survey of strategies, algorithms, and prediction methods to select, calculate, and represent the features and properties of chemical structures in biological systems. It provides sources of high-quality toxicity data, the most important commercial and noncommercial predictive toxicology programs, and advanced technologies in computational chemistry, biology, statistics, and data mining. Predictive Toxicology explores applications that go beyond classical structure-activity relationships and discusses programs such as OncoLogic, META, MC4PC, PASS, and lazar.

Historically, regulations governing chemical use have often focused on widely used chemicals and acute human health effects of exposure to them, as well as their potential to cause cancer and other adverse health effects. As scientific knowledge has expanded there has been an increased awareness of the mechanisms through which chemicals may exert harmful effects on human health, as well as their effects on other species and ecosystems. Identification of high-priority chemicals and other chemicals of concern has prompted a growing number of state and local governments, as well as major companies, to take steps beyond existing hazardous chemical federal legislation. Interest in approaches and policies that ensure that any new substances substituted for chemicals of concern are assessed as carefully and thoroughly as possible has also burgeoned. The overarching goal of these approaches is to avoid regrettable substitutions, which occur when a toxic chemical is replaced by another chemical that later proved unsuitable because of persistence, bioaccumulation, toxicity, or other concerns. Chemical alternative assessments are tools designed to facilitate consideration of these factors to assist stakeholders in identifying chemicals that may have the greatest likelihood of harm to human and ecological health, and to provide guidance on how the industry may develop and adopt safer alternatives. A Framework to Guide Selection of Chemical Alternatives develops and demonstrates a decision framework for evaluating potentially safer substitute chemicals as primarily determined by human health and ecological risks. This new framework is informed by previous efforts by regulatory agencies, academic institutions, and others to develop alternative assessment frameworks that could be operationalized. In addition to hazard assessments, the framework incorporates steps for life-cycle thinking - which considers possible impacts of a chemical at all stages including production, use, and disposal - as well as steps for performance and economic assessments. The report also highlights how modern information sources such as computational modeling can supplement traditional toxicology data in the assessment process. This new framework allows the evaluation of the full range of benefits and shortcomings of substitutes, and examination of tradeoffs between these risks and factors such as product functionality, product efficacy, process safety, and resource use. Through case studies, this report demonstrates how different users in contrasting decision contexts with diverse priorities can apply the framework. This report will be an essential resource to the chemical industry, environmentalists, ecologists, and state and local governments.

CHEMOMETRICS AND CHEMINFORMATICS IN AQUATIC TOXICOLOGY Explore chemometric and cheminformatic techniques and tools in aquatic toxicology Chemometrics and Cheminformatics in Aquatic Toxicology delivers an exploration of the existing and emerging problems of contamination of the aquatic environment through various metal and organic pollutants, including industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, biocides, nanomaterials, pesticides, surfactants, dyes, and more. The book discusses different chemometric and cheminformatic tools for non-experts and their application to the analysis and modeling of toxicity data of chemicals to various aquatic organisms. You’ll learn about a variety of aquatic toxicity databases and chemometric software tools and webservers as well as practical examples of model development, including illustrations. You’ll also find case studies and literature reports to round out your understanding of the subject. Finally, you’ll learn about tools and protocols including machine learning, data mining, and QSAR and ligand-based chemical design methods. Readers will also benefit from the inclusion of: A thorough introduction to chemometric and cheminformatic tools and techniques, including machine learning and data mining An exploration of aquatic toxicity databases, chemometric software tools, and webservers Practical examples and case studies to highlight and illustrate the concepts contained within the book A concise treatment of chemometric and cheminformatic tools and their application to the analysis and modeling of toxicity data Perfect for researchers and students in chemistry and the environmental and pharmaceutical sciences, Chemometrics and Cheminformatics in Aquatic Toxicology will also earn a place in the libraries of professionals in the chemical industry and regulators whose work involves chemometrics.

Of the thousands of novel compounds that a drug discovery project team invents and that bind to the therapeutic target, typically only a fraction of these have sufficient ADME/Tox properties to become a drug product. Understanding ADME/Tox is critical for all drug researchers, owing to its increasing importance in advancing high quality candidates to clinical studies and the processes of drug discovery. If the properties are weak, the candidate will have a high risk of failure or be less desirable as a drug product. This book is a tool and resource for scientists engaged in, or preparing for, the selection and optimization process. The authors describe how properties affect in vivo pharmacological activity and impact in vitro assays. Individual drug-like properties are discussed from a practical point of view, such as solubility, permeability and metabolic stability, with regard to fundamental understanding, applications of property data in drug discovery and examples of structural modifications that have achieved improved property performance. The authors also review various methods for the screening (high throughput), diagnosis (medium throughput) and in-depth (low throughput) analysis of drug properties. Serves as an essential working handbook aimed at scientists and students in medicinal chemistry Provides practical, step-by-step guidance on property fundamentals, effects, structure-property relationships, and structure modification strategies Discusses improvements in pharmacokinetics from a practical chemist's standpoint