Lipophilicity profiling and cell viability assessment of a selected panel of endocrine disruptors.

Endocrine disruptors are chemicals widely used worldwide by industries in a variety of applications. Routinely exposure to these chemicals, even if at low doses, can cause damage effects on human health. In the present study, we evaluated toxic effects of nine chemicals, among which phthalates, using various cell lines to inspect their capability to interfere with cell proliferation and viability. Alongside, we investigated their affinity for phospholipids to assess the possible passage through biomembranes. Experimentally determined logk values ranged from 1.37 to 3.49 whilst calculated log k spanned from 1.80 to 5.21, supporting the target contaminants to exhibit lipophilicity moderate or very high. The achieved results were related to pharmacokinetic and toxicological properties by ADMET predictor™ and EPI Suite™ software. Triclosan and 4-Nonylphenol were found to be the most toxic against all cell lines screened, showing an IC of 30 μM for triclosan on human keratinocytes and of 50 μM for 4-Nonylphenol on human colorectal adenocarcinoma cells. Overall, even if the phthalates showed higher IC values (ranging from 170 μM to 280 μM), we can assert that all contaminants herein tested were able to interfere with cell growth and viability.