Detecting toxicity

A new paper by chemistry professor James F. Rusling and colleagues at the UConn Health Center is featured on the cover of the July 15 issue of the journal Analytical Chemistry.

It describes a very efficient, fast method for detecting toxicity caused by the metabolism of new drugs or environmental pollutants.

The first stage of the test screens for problem or “toxic” molecules, and the second provides molecular details of how the metabolism could lead to toxicity.

Rusling and a group of researchers led by John B. Schenkman at the UConn Health Center have been studying new methods to detect toxicity in molecules.

They use structural biochemical methods, Rusling says, which differ from the conventional method of trying to predict from animal outcomes the toxicity of substances in humans.

The approach described in the new paper is based on a major liver toxicity mechanism.

 The paper is available online at  http://pubs3.acs.org/acs/journals/toc.page?incoden=ancham . Click on the cover image in the upper left corner.