Predicting the carcinogenic potential of environmental nitropyrenes

Nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (nitroarenes) constitute a large group of anthrapogenic environmental contaminants. Some members of the group are mutagenic and genotoxic in a wide spectrum of systems while others are either mutagenic only in Salmonella typhimurium or devoid of activity altogether. Additionally, some nitroarenes are uniformly carcinogenic in rodents while others are not. In view of the logistic and economic problems involved in preparing large quantities of individual nitroarenes in pure (greater than 99.5%) form and assaying them for carcinogenicity in animals, we have analyzed the results that nitropyrenes and related chemicals yield in short-term tests by CPBS, the Carcinogen Prediction, and Battery Selection method, and demonstrate that CPBS classifies them correctly with respect to carcinogenicity.