Biomimetic Chromatography/QSAR Investigations in Modeling Properties Influencing the Biological Efficacy of Phenoxyacetic Acid-Derived Congeners

A hybrid method-combining liquid biomimetic chromatography techniques (immobilized artificial membrane chromatography and biopartitioning micellar chromatography) and Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships-was used to derive helpful models for predicting selected biological properties such as penetration through the plant cuticle, the skin and the blood-brain barrier, and binding to human serum albumin of phenoxyacetic acid-derived congeners regarded as potential herbicides. Reliable, high-concept models were developed indicating the lipophilicity, polarizability, and sum of hydrogen bond donors and acceptors as properties that determine the biological efficacy of the title compounds. These models were validated by leave-one-out cross-validation. Modeling the toxicity of phenoxyacetic acid-derived congeners to red blood cells allowed the identification of the most toxic substances as well as those molecular descriptors that determine their hemolytic properties.