AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

Prediction of the skin sensitization potential of organic chemicals through in vitro bioassay and chemoassay information

by Weicheng Zhang




Institution: Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg
Department: Chemie und Physik
Degree: PhD
Year: 2014
Record ID: 1114533
Full text PDF: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:105-qucosa-161710


Abstract

Skin sensitization resulting for allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) is an occupational and environmental health issue. The allergic hazard for workers and consumers is a serious problem for individuals, employers and marketing certain products. Consequently, it is necessary to accurately identify chemicals skin sensitization potential. According to the new EU chemical regulation REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals), information of skin sensitization of chemicals manufactured or imported at or above 1 ton/year should be available. Currently, valid approaches assessing skin sensitization rely on animal testing, such as local lymph node assay (LLNA). However, it now ultimately eliminates using animals for this purpose. Based on the fact that a key step in the skin sensitization process is formatting a covalent adduct between allergic sensitizers and proteins and/or peptides in skin, a lot of additional approaches are proposed and developed for replacing or reducing animal used. In this research, three bioassays, 24 h growth inhibition toward Tetrahymena pyriformis, long term (24 h) and short term (30 min) bacterial toxicity (to Vibrio fischeri), and a kinetic glutathione chemoassay are applied for predicting the organic chemicals’ skin sensitization potential. The major results and conclusions obtained are listed as follows: 1. Toxicity enhancement (Te) of 55 chemicals comprising different sensitization potencies were determined and compared with their narcotic toxicity to predict their skin sensitization. Three linear regressions yielded for all allergic sensitizer without nonsensitizers for each bioassay. The linear regressions are improved after classifying sensitizers into five different reaction mechanistic domains. Correspondingly, five different slopes from various reaction mechanisms indicate a decreased sensitivity of toxicity enhancement to skin sensitization potential with order SNAr > SN2 > acylation ≈ Schiff base > aromatic Michael addition. Based on the fact that a key step in the skin sensitization process is forming a covalent adduct between allergic sensitizers and proteins and/or peptides, Te > 10 as a threshold is applied to discriminate these allergic sensitizers, with 100% accuracy for strong (with extreme) and weaker sensitizers, up to 72% accuracy for moderate sensitizers and less than 69% accuracy for nonsensitizers. Compared with these bioassays, a decreasing order of sensitivities is 24 h growth inhibition (Tetrahymena pyriformis) > 24 h growth inhibition (Vibrio fischeri) > 30 min bioluminescence inhibition (Vibrio fischeri). These three bioassays are useful tools for screening sensitization potency of allergic chemicals, and the toxicity enhancement (Te) can be used to discriminate sensitizers from weak or nonsensitizers. However, in this context we should separate aromatic from aliphatic Mas (Michael acceptors). Moreover, metabolic biotransformation should be considered during predicting nonsensitizers’ skin sensitization. 2. Chemical reactivity of…