Structure-activity relationships of chemical mutagens and carcinogens.

In recent years, octanol-water partition coefficients (P) have been used in toxicology studies to correlate chemical structure and biological activity. Generally, only limited attempts are made to show how a new correlation equation relates to those previously published, especially when different activities are involved. Evidence is presented to show that there is often a high degree of self-consistency between the dependence of activity on hydrophobicity (defined by log P) from different systems. Examples are drawn from nonspecific toxicity, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity. It is suggested that this kind of lateral correlation is an important means for validating structure-activity relationships.