Evaluation of SARs for the prediction of skin irritation/corrosion potential: structural inclusion rules in the BfR decision support system

SAR QSAR Environ Res. 2007 May-Jun;18(3-4):331-42. doi: 10.1080/10629360701304014.

Abstract

The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) has developed a Decision Support System (DSS) to assess certain hazardous properties of pure chemicals, including skin and eye irritation/corrosion. The BfR-DSS is a rule-based system that could be used for the regulatory classification of chemicals in the European Union. The system is based on the combined use of two predictive approaches: exclusion rules based on physicochemical cut-off values to identify chemicals that do not exhibit a certain hazard (e.g., skin irritation/corrosion), and inclusion rules based on structural alerts to identify chemicals that do show a particular toxic potential. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the structural inclusion rules implemented in the BfR-DSS for the prediction of skin irritation and corrosion. The following assessments were performed: (a) a confirmation of the structural rules by rederiving them from the original training set (1358 substances), and (b) an external validation by using a test set of 200 chemicals not used in the derivation of the rules. It was found as a result that the test data set did not match the training set relative to the inclusion of structural alerts associated with skin irritation/corrosion, albeit some skin irritants were in the test set.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Validation Study

MeSH terms

  • Caustics / chemistry*
  • Caustics / toxicity
  • Irritants / chemistry*
  • Irritants / toxicity
  • Models, Chemical
  • Molecular Structure
  • Skin / drug effects*
  • Skin Irritancy Tests / methods*
  • Structure-Activity Relationship

Substances

  • Caustics
  • Irritants