Development of a format for abstracting dose-response information from published studies for use in quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs).

The Toxic Substances Control Act subjects some 70 000 chemicals to regulatory action. However, empirical testing of the biological activities of this number of compounds is not feasible. An attractive alternative is the development of predictive methodology which can be used to estimate the potency of an untested compound toward a specific biological receptor. Prerequisite to such an enterprise is the highly systematic compilation of dose-response information for a wide range of biological end points and for a wide variety of molecular species. A format is described for abstracting relevant information from published studies. The format outlines the test system, experimental conditions, response analysis, exposure protocol, and results and presents the original data, all in an organized form. Regression analysis is used to estimate thresholds and potencies in the various test systems. The data may then be used to develop a predictive methodology.