Extrapolating between toxicity endpoints of metal oxide nanoparticles: Predicting toxicity to Escherichia coli and human keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT) with Nano-QTTR

• First time interspecies cytotoxicity correlation models are proposed for NPs.
• Simple molecular descriptors are used to develop the nano-QTTR models.
• The models provide major contributing mechanisms of action of NPs for both species.
• Extrapolation of the cytotoxicity data of one species to another species is possible.

Synthesis of novel nanoparticles should always be accompanied by a comprehensive assessment of risk to human health and to ecosystem. Application of in silico models is encouraged by regulatory authorities to fill the data gaps related to the properties of nanoparticles affecting the environment and human health. Interspecies toxicity correlations provide a tool for estimation of contaminant's sensitivity with known levels of uncertainty for a diverse pool of species. We propose here first interspecies cytotoxicity correlation models between Escherichia coli (prokaryotic system) and human keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT) (eukaryotic system) to assess the discriminatory features for cytotoxicity of metal oxide nanoparticles. The nano-QTTR models can be employed for extrapolating cytotoxicity to E. coli and human keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT) for metal nanoparticles when the data for the other species are available. Informative illustrations of the contributing mechanisms of toxic action of the metal oxide nanoparticles to the HaCaT cell line as well as to the E. coli are identified from the developed nano quantitative toxicity–toxicity relationship (nano-QTTR) models.

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