For toxicological-based structure-activity relationships to advance, will require a better understanding of molecular reactivity. A rapid and inexpensive spectrophotometric assay for determining the reactive to glutathione (GSH) was developed and used to determine GSH reactivity (reactGSH) data for 21 aliphatic derivatives of esters, ketones and aldehydes. From these data, a series of structure-activity relationships were evaluated. The structure feature associated with reactGSH was an acetylenic or olefinic moiety conjugated to a carbonyl group (i.e. polarized alpha,beta-unsaturation). This structure conveys the capacity to undergo a covalent interaction with the thiol group of cysteine (i.e. Michael- addition). Quantitatively reactGSH of the alpha,beta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds is reliant upon the specific molecular structure with several tendencies observed. Specifically, it was noted that for alpha,beta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds: (1) the acetylenic-substituted derivatives were more reactive than the corresponding olefinic-substituted ones; (2) terminal vinyl-substituted derivatives was more reactive than the internal vinylene-substituted ones; (3) methyl substitution on the vinyl carbon atoms diminishes reactivity and methyl-substitution on the carbon atom farthest from the carbonyl group causes a larger reduction; (4) derivatives with carbon-carbon double bond on the end of the molecule (i.e. vinyl ketone) were more reactive than one with the carbon-oxygen bond at the end of the molecule (i.e. aldehyde) and (5) the ester with an additional unsaturated vinyl groups were more reactive than the derivative having an unsaturated ethyl group.

A diverse series of aliphatic alpha,beta-unsaturated esters, ketones, and aldehydes were evaluated for reactivity with the model nucleophile sulfhydryl group in the form of the cysteine residue of the tripeptide glutathione; the reactive end point (RC50) was then related to aquatic toxicity (IGC50) assessed in the Tetrahymena pyriformis population growth impairment assay. The substructure specific to all tested reactive substances, an olefin conjugated to a carbonyl group, is inherently electrophilic and conveys the potential to act by way of Michael-type nucleophilic addition. All such unsaturated compounds are inherently acutely toxic. However, their toxicity is difficult to model with conventional descriptors since toxicity is independent of both hydrophobicity and molecular orbital electrophilicity but dependent on the specific molecular structure. While methacrylates typically did not attain an RC50 value at saturation, a linear relationship [log (IGC50(-1)) = 0.936[log (RC50(-1))] + 0.508, where n = 41, r2 = 0.846, q2 = 0.832, s = 0.35, F = 214, and Pr > F = 0.0001] was observed between aquatic toxicity and reactivity for the other carbonyl-containing alpha,beta-unsaturated chemicals.

A diverse series of polarized alpha,beta-unsaturated and related compounds were evaluated for reactivity with a spectrophotometric assay using the sulfhydryl group in the form of the cysteine residue of the tripeptide GSH as a model nucleophile. The reactive end point (RC 50) calculations were compared to previously described structural alerts based on conventional organic chemistry. This comparison focused on polarized alpha,beta-unsaturates, including ones containing an aldehyde, ketone, ester, sulfoxide, sulfone, sulfonate, nitro, or cyano moiety as well as ortho- and para-pyridino compounds and ortho- and para-quinones. The alerts were coded by substructure and are available in open-source software ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/chemeval). Comparisons of reactivity between selected analogues revealed that only the polarized alpha,beta-unsaturates were reactive. These results verified the coded structural alerts that define the applicability domain for Michael acceptor electrophiles.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae bioluminescent bioreporter assays were developed previously to assess a chemical's estrogenic or androgenic disrupting potential. S. cerevisiae BLYES, S. cerevisiae BLYAS, S. cerevisiae BLYR, were used to assess their reproducibility and utility in screening 68, 69, and 71 chemicals for estrogenic, androgenic, and toxic effects, respectively. EC(50) values were 6.3 +/- 2.4 x 10(-10)M (n = 18) and 1.1 +/- 0.5 x 10(-8)M (n = 13) for BLYES and BLYAS, using 17beta-estradiol and 5alpha-dihydrotestosterone over concentration ranges of 2.5 x 10(-12) through 1.0 x 10(-6)M, respectively. Based on analysis of replicate standard curves and comparison to background controls, a set of quantitative rules have been formulated to interpret data and determine if a chemical is potentially hormonally active, toxic, both, or neither. The results demonstrated that these assays are applicable for Tier I chemical screening in Environmental Protection Agency's Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Program as well as for monitoring endocrine-disrupting activity of unknown chemicals in water.

Using toxicity data for 30 aliphatic polarized alpha,beta-unsaturated derivatives of esters, aldehydes, and ketones, a series of six structure-toxicity relationships were evaluated. The structure feature of all assessed compounds, an acetylenic or olefinic moiety conjugated to a carbonyl group, is inherently electrophilic and conveys the capacity to exhibit enhanced toxicity. However, the toxic potency of alpha,beta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds is dependent on the specific molecular structure with several trends being observed. Specific observations include: (1) between homologues, the acetylenic-substituted derivative was more toxic than the corresponding olefinic-substituted one, respectively; (2) between olefinic-homologues, terminal vinyl-substituted derivative was more toxic than the internal vinylene-substituted one; (3) within alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones, methyl substitution on the vinyl carbon atoms reduces toxicity with methyl-substitution on the carbon atom farthest from the carbonyl group exhibiting the greater inhibition; (4) between alpha,beta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds with the carbon-carbon double bond on the end of the molecule (vinyl ketones) and those with carbon-oxygen double bonds on the end of the molecule (aldehydes), the ketones are more toxic than the aldehydes; (5) between homologues of alpha,beta-unsaturated esters, those with additional unsaturated moieties (allyl, propargyl, or vinyl groups) were more toxic than homologues having relevant unsaturated moieties (propyl or ethyl groups); (6) between alpha,beta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds with different shaped alkyl-groups (i.e. different degrees of branching), homologues with straight-chain hydrocarbon moieties were more toxic than those with branched groups.