In silico predictive toxicology: the state-of-the-art and strategies to predict human health effects.

In silico predictive toxicology techniques are a fast and cost-efficient alternative or supplement to bioassays for the identification of toxic effects at an early stage of drug development. This review provides a conceptual description of the most important in silico prediction techniques and presents exemplary strategies for the prediction of human health effects. Special emphasis will be given to validation issues and the performance of models for human health-related effects.