Abstract

The field of systems biology, termed systems toxicology when applied to the characterization of adverse outcomes following chemical exposure, seeks to develop biological networks to explain phenotypic responses. Ideally, these are qualitatively and quantitatively similar to the actual network of biological entities that have functional consequences in living organisms. In this review, computational tools for predicting chemicalprotein interactions of multi-target compounds are outlined. Then, we discuss how the methods of systems toxicology currently draw on those interactions to predict resulting adverse outcomes which include diseases, adverse drug reactions, and toxic endpoints. These methods are useful for predicting the safety of drugs in drug development and the toxicity of environmental chemicals (ECs) in environmental toxicology.

Keywords: Adverse outcome pathway, adverse reactions, biological network models, computational toxicology, drug development, environmental toxicology, multi-target compounds, network analysis, systems toxicology.