Abstract |
The highly structurally diverse nature of current carcinogenicity and mutagenicity data bases has motivated development of more general structure-activity relationships (SAR) approaches, potentially applicable to the treatment of diverse, non-congeneric mutagenicity and carcinogenicity data bases. Three specific approaches are considered in some detail--Ashby's structural alerts model, classified as a 'rule-based' SAR approach, and the computerized CASE fragment-based method and TOPKAT linear discriminant equation method, both classified as 'correlative' SAR approaches. Relative strengths and limitations, and a number of common features and important distinctions between these 3 methods are discussed. Finally, problems in comparing the relative predictive capabilities of different SAR approaches are discussed, and strategies for SAR investigation involving integration of existing techniques are suggested. |