Acute toxicity evaluation upon intravenous injection into mice: interspecies correlations, lipophilicity parameters, and physicochemical descriptors

Abstract

Interspecies correlations between the acute intravenous toxicity in mice and toxicities in several species of fish (guppy, fathead minnow, rainbow trout), infusorium Tetrahymena pyriformis, and the freshwater flea Daphnia magna have been studied. These correlations and relationships between the toxicity of chemical substances and their hydrophobicity and physicochemical descriptors lead to a conclusion that the toxicity of inert chemical substances to living organisms can be estimated using approaches based on the (i) toxicity to other living organisms, (ii) the hydrophobicity, and (iii) physicochemical descriptors of steric factors and the ability to form hydrogen bonds. The last approach is most promising because it does not involve laborious procedures and large expenditures for the synthesis and experimental evaluation of the lipophilicity and toxicity of compounds.