Structure-toxicity relationships of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons using molecular quantum similarity

The establishment of quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models for the toxicity of polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is described. Two properties, in vitro percutaneous absorption in rat skin and discrete levels of carcinogenic activity, are examined using molecular quantum similarity measures (MQSM). The results show that MQSM produces comparable, or even better, results than other approaches using physicochemical, topological and quantum-chemical molecular descriptors. Furthermore, a careful analysis puts into evidence that most of the information characterized by the original descriptors is in fact contained in the molecular density functions, the basis of MQSM. The present paper, together with several other reported by our laboratory, proves that MQSM might be appropriate theoretical tools for QSAR and computer-aided drug design, comparable to other highly predictive QSAR methodologies.