Biochemical significance of the hard and soft acids and bases principle

The hard and soft acids and bases (HSAB) principle, which states that hard acids bind preferentially to hard bases and soft acids to soft bases, may serve to assess specific chemico-biological interactions. As living systems are composed mainly of "hard" elements, molecular events taking place within the cell are dominated by "hard-hard interactions". On this premise, it becomes likely that extraneous "soft" agents are particularly injurious to life. In the HSAB context a selected number of variegated phenomena are briefly discussed qualitatively; these include biocidal actions, heavy metal poisoning, chemical carcinogenesis, some enzymic reactions, and nucleic acid complexations. Although the HSAB principle cannot be used as a tool for mechanistic explanations of biochemical processes, it may provide clues to likely target molecules and the loci of action.