A new paradigm in threshold of toxicological concern based on chemoinformatics analysis of a highly curated database...

A new database of antimicrobial-enriched chemicals for the Threshold of Toxicological Concern (TTC) approach has been compiled, comprising 1357 chemicals with 276, 54, and 1027 substances in Cramer Classes I, II, and III, respectively. To enrich the chemical space of the No-/Lowest-Observed-Adverse Effect Level (NOAEL/LOAEL) database, a reference Antimicrobial (AM) Inventory (681) was established for chemical inclusion. To this database, the three existing TTC datasets were combined via robust data fusion process. From the final AM TTC Dataset, the fifth percentiles were derived to be 2.7, 0.43, and 0.12 mg/kg-bw/day for Cramer Classes I, II, and III, respectively. Considering the high percentage of AMs being Cramer Class III, the thresholds are remarkably stable across various TTC datasets. Based on the AM-enriched database, a set of AM categories stratified across potency were developed to classify AMs beyond the capability of the conventional Cramer Tree approach. Grouping the query chemical within the AM category, further distribution analyses were conducted to identify subclasses and differentiate potency. This study proposes a new framework for potential assessment of chronic toxicity made possible with the power of modern reliable databases and chemoinformatic methods.