Metal toxicity in two rodent species and redox potential: evaluation of quantitative structure-activity relationships

• Published in: Environmental toxicology and chemistry 1999-10, Vol.18 (10), p.2199-2204
• Main Authors: Lewis, D.F.V, Dobrota, M, Taylor, M.G, Parke, D.V
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution; Effects of pollution and side effects of pesticides on vertebrates; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; heavy metals; Mammalia; Metal toxicity; mice; Quantitative structure-activity relationships; rats; Redox potential; structure-activity relationships; toxicity; toxicology
• ISSN: 0730-7268; 1552-8618
• DOI: 10.1002/etc.5620181012

A quantitative structure-activity relationship study of acute toxicity in the mouse and rat is described for the soluble salts of a relatively large number of metals (between 25 and 30 in total). Electrode potential is the major determinant of acute metal toxicity (R = 0.85 and 0.86) for an intraperitoneal dose in the mouse, whereas the addition of ionic radius and polarizability enables the inclusion of notable outliers in the original expression, such as beryllium and barium, thus giving a good correlation (R = 0.87) with toxicity for 27 metal compounds. These findings are rationalized on the basis of relative ease of ionization, electron affinity, and transport factors of the metals and their ions, thus being consistent with the hard and soft acids and bases properties of metals and their biological reactivities.