Response Surface Analysis for Continous Regressors Applied to Neurotoxic Organophosphorus Pesticides

Usually, the purpose of the response surface optimization is to be able to locate the optimum operating levels of the regressors. In quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) studies, the predicting variable reflects any biological property, and the regressors are structural and physico-chemical terms. By contrast to the Box-Wilson approach, the regressors are continously distributed. The working technique is demonstrated on an example adapted from organophosphorus pesticide research. It was found that the maximum neurotoxicity depends on lipophilic and steric substituent properties.