Contact allergy: the role of skin chemistry and metabolism

Chemical reactivity plays the driving role in the biological processes that result in the induction of allergic contact dermatitis. This paper presents an overview of the chemical basis of allergic contact dermatitis, including the physicochemical parameters governing skin penetration, chemical reaction mechanisms associated with haptenation of skin proteins, (quantitative) structure-activity relationships (Q)SARs for contact allergens and prohaptens/skin metabolism of contact allergens. Despite the complexities and poor understanding of some of the metabolic processes leading to skin sensitization, it is possible to describe some of the relationships between chemical structures and the ability to form covalent conjugates with proteins. This knowledge, which relates chemical structure to a specific endpoint, can be programmed into an expert system. The Deductive Estimation of Risk from Existing Knowledge (DEREK) is one such expert system which is described in further detail.