Polychlorinated dibenzofurans; quantitative structure activity relationships

Multimode Ligand Binding in Receptor Site Modeling: Implementation in CoMFA

Receptor site modeling methods usually use one binding mode (conformation and/or orientation) for each ligand in a 1:1 complex with receptor. Multiple modes should be considered instead because (1). they have frequently been observed experimentally; (2). in a series, ligands can bind in single yet different modes; and (3). a series may only exhibit one but unknown mode and a few plausible modes must be examined. For multimode binding, the observed ligand/receptor association constant is the sum of the association constants that characterize individual binding modes. This relation, when applied to Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA), results in a dependence of the observed binding energy on the probe energies that is nonlinear in optimized parameters. The dependence was linearized to allow parameter optimization by the partial least-squares method that was used iteratively until self-consistency. In addition to the standard CoMFA output, the procedure objectively selects one or a few optimal binding modes out of a dozen or more modes that are considered for each ligand. The approach was applied to published data for binding of 34 polychlorinated dibenzofurans to the aryl hydrocarbon receptor. Descriptive and predictive abilities of the 16-mode model were significantly better than for the one-, two-, and four-mode models. Predominantly, edge-aligned modes were selected that are seldom used in CoMFA. Since inclusion of multimode binding only changes the form of the correlation equation and does not affect the number of optimized parameters, the improvement is believed to be due to a more realistic description.

Monoclonal antibodies for dioxin: antibody characterization and assay development

A set of 5 anti-dioxin monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), named DD-1, DD-3, DD-4, DD-5 and DD-6, have been isolated. In order to evaluate the ability of these mAbs to recognize various kinds of polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans, a competition enzyme-linked immunosorbtion assay (ELISA) was developed. All 5 antibodies recognize tetrachloro- and pentachloro-dibenzodioxins and -dibenzofurans. They fail to bind either non-chlorinated, mono-, hexa-, or octa-chlorinated dibenzodioxins, nor do they recognize non-chlorinated, octachloro- or 1,2,3,4,8,9-hexachloro-dibenzofurans. Chlorine substitution on both rings appears necessary for antibody recognition. In the course of our experiments, 3 of the mAbs did not recognize any of the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) tested, while 2 mAbs (DD-1 and DD-6) weakly recognized the 3,3',4,4'-tetrachloro congener. DD-4 and DD-5 are the most specific of the antibodies for the dibenzodioxin and dibenzofuran structure. They do not recognize any of a panel of chlorinated phenols, benzenes, or pesticides. Significantly, these antibodies do not react with PCBs, pentachlorophenol, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, trichlorophenol, or 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (the latter is weakly recognized by DD-6), any or all of which might be present in large quantities in some dioxin-contaminated samples. Finally, the competition ELISA is able to easily detect 0.5 ng of the most toxic dioxin congener, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. It should thus prove useful as an environmental screen for contamination.

The biologic and toxic effects of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin in chickens

The administration of 2,3,7,8-TCDD to 2-week-old White Leghorn cockerels produced a dose-dependent induction of hepatic microsomal ethoxyresorufin O-deethylase (EROD) and benzo[alpha]pyrene (B[alpha]P) hydroxylase activities with induction EC50 values of 778 and 302 ng/kg, respectively. In addition, 2,3,7,8-TCDD also induced 4-dimethylaminoantipyrine (DMAP) N-demethylase (EC50 = 561 ng/kg), this result contrasting with studies reported for other animal species in which 2,3,7,8-TCDD either does not induce or inhibits this cytochrome P-450 dependent monooxygenase enzyme activity. However, the reduced cytochrome P-450:CO binding difference spectral absorption maxima for the 2,3,7,8-TCDD induced microsomes was observed at 448 nm which was similar to that reported for most animals which have been investigated. Electrophoresis of control and 2,3,7,8-TCDD induced microsomal proteins using SDS polyacrylamide slab gels showed intensification of 3 protein staining bands at Mr 53 000, 56 000 and 58 000. Incubation of the 2,3,7,8-TCDD-induced microsomes with SKF-525A and alpha-naphthoflavone showed that both compounds inhibited DMAP N-demethylase, EROD and AHH and that alpha-naphthoflavone was the more potent inhibitor of all 3 microsomal monooxygenases. 2,3,7,8-TCDD treatment caused significant involution of the Bursa of Fabricius when administered at a dose level of 10 micrograms/kg for 3 days and this result confirmed the extreme sensitivity of the immature White Leghorn cockerel to the biologic and toxic effects elicited by 2,3,7,8-TCDD. However, in contrast to other sensitive species, no high affinity cytosolic receptor protein for [3H]2,3,7,8-TCDD could be detected in the liver of chick embryos or 2-week-old birds.