Expanding the applicability of the amino acid derivative reactivity assay: Determining a weight for preparation of test chemical solutions that yield a predictive capacity identical to the conventional method using molar concentration and demonstrating the capacity to detect sensitizers in liquid mixtures.

INTRODUCTION: The amino acid derivative reactivity assay (ADRA) is a novel in chemico alternative to animal testing for assessment of skin sensitization potential. The conventional ADRA protocol stipulates that test chemical solutions should be prepared to a specific molar concentration, allowing only for use of test chemicals with known molecular weights. Since many potential test substances are prepared by weight concentration or contain multiple unknown chemicals, this study was conducted to verify if it is possible to accurately assess the sensitization potential of test chemical solutions prepared at a specific weight concentration.

METHODS: (1) Test chemical solutions for 82 chemicals were prepared at four different weight concentrations. Results were evaluated for agreement with in vivo results. (2) A liquid mixture comprising ten different non-sensitizers was prepared at 1 mg/mL. Ten different sensitizers of varying sensitization potencies were added individually to this mixture. The resulting pseudobinary mixtures were tested to confirm that the sensitizers could be detected.

RESULTS: (1) The accuracies for test chemical solutions prepared at 0.5 and 0.2 mg/mL were 87.8% and 86.6%, respectively, which were roughly equivalent to the accuracy of 86.6% achieved with a solution prepared at the conventional molar concentration of 1 mM. In contrast, the accuracies for solutions prepared at 0.1 and 0.05 mg/mL were 82.9% and 74.4%, respectively, both of which were lower than that obtained with the conventional method. (2) Sensitizers added to the liquid mixture at 0.5 mg/mL were all correctly detected.

DISCUSSION: Preparing test chemical solutions at a weight concentration of 0.5 mg/mL decreased false negatives and increased false positives while improving prediction accuracy, which suggests that the sensitization potential of mixtures can also be assessed with this method.