Advances in Quantitative Ion Character‐Activity Relationships (QICARs): Using Metal‐Ligand Binding Characteristics to Predict Metal Toxicity
David R. Ownby, Michael C. Newman · QSAR & Combinatorial Science · 2003
Abstract Environmental toxicologists readily adopted QSARs from pharmacology to predict organic contaminant toxicity. In contrast, models relating metal ion characteristics to their bioactivity remain poorly explored and underutilized. Quantitative Ion Character‐Activity Relationships (QICARs) have recently been developed to predict metal toxicity. The QICAR approach, based on metal‐ligand binding tendencies, has been applied successfully to a wide range of effects, species, and media on a single metal basis. In previous single metal studies, a softness parameter and the |log KOH| were among the ion qualities with the highest predictive value for toxicity.