ECOTOXICOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY

108 (2014) 203–209

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

W E T H A N K T H E E C P R O J E C T N A N O P U Z Z L E S ( P R O J E C T R E F E R E N C E : 3 0 9 8 3 7 )

Optimal descriptor as atranslator of eclectic information into the prediction of membrane damage:

The case of a group of ZnO and TiO2 nanoparticles

Alla P.Toropova , Andrey A.Toropov , Emilio Benfenati , Tomasz Puzyn , Danuta Leszczynska , Jerzy Leszczynski

To characterize nanoparticles (NPs) and their potential hazards sufficiently,empirical data are necessary. Since the early days of the REACH(2006) proposals, it has been agreed by all partners that the number

of animals used togain toxicity information on chemicals should be kept to an absolute minimum.

The development of quantitative structure—activity relationships for nanomaterials needs representation of molecular structure of extremely complex molecular systems. Obviously, various characteristics of nanomaterial could impact associated biochemical endpoints. Following features of TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles (n=42) are considered here:

(i)engineered size (nm); (ii)size in water suspension (nm); (iii) size in phosphate buffered saline (PBS,nm); (iv)concentration (mg/L); and (v)zeta potential (mV).The damage to cellular membranes(units/L)is selected as an endpoint.Quantitative features—activity relationships (QFARs)are calculated by the

Monte Carlo technique for three distributions of data representing values associated with membrane damage into the training and validation sets.

The obtained models are characterized by the following average statistics:

Experimental data on the physicochemical features of TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles and their influence on the membrane damage are taken from the literature.

The optimal descriptors are calculated as the following:

2. Discrimination of impact according to scale into one of categories from 1, 2,…, 9. Following symbols: A, B,C, D,E are used to define engineered size (nm); size in water

suspension (nm); size in phosphate buffered saline (PBS, nm); concentration (mg/L); and (v)zeta potential (mV), respectively.

… … … … … … … …

Discrimination of normalized physicochemical features (A, B, …, E) into categories 0,1,2, …, 9 according to its value (Eq. (2)).

Conclusions

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