Structural alerts alerts and in silico assay
The first indication that a chemical is a mutagen often lies in chemical structure. Potential electrophilic sites in molecule serve as an alert to possible mutagenicity and carcinogenicity because such sites confer reactivity with nucleophilic sites in DNA . Structural alerts in combination with critical interpretation are a valuable adjunct to mutagenicity testing. Attempts to formalize the structural prediction through automated computer programs have not yet led to an ability to predict mutagenicity and carcinogenicity of new chemicals with great accuracy, but promising developmental work on such system continues.
Computer-based systems for predicting genotoxicity based on chemical properties are sometime called in silico assays. These assays include computational and structural programs and the modeling of quantitative structure-activity relationships. Although there is much skepticism that such approaches can replace biological testing, they hold promise of improving the efficiency of testing strategies and reducing current levels of animal use.