Structure-activity relationships in the antiinflammatory steroids: a pattern-recognition approach.

A pattern-recognition technique has been used to determine structure-activity relationships for antiinflammatory steroids. Experimental results using the human vasoconstrictor test of McKenzie and Stoughton and the rat granuloma cotton pellet method of Meier were correlated with the various substructural descriptors. Steroids were classified into two categories according to potency, and a pattern-recognition method was applied to determine their relative ranking. The resulting structure-activity relationships obtained and the relative contributions of the various structural variables for both bioassays are discussed. A synergistic effect was predicted to be in operation between certain pairs of substituents.