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. 2010 Oct 7;11 Suppl 6(Suppl 6):S5.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2105-11-S6-S5.

The EDKB: an established knowledge base for endocrine disrupting chemicals

Don Ding  1 , Lei Xu, Hong Fang, Huixiao Hong, Roger Perkins, Steve Harris, Edward D Bearden, Leming Shi, Weida Tong
Affiliations

The EDKB: an established knowledge base for endocrine disrupting chemicals

Don Ding et al. BMC Bioinformatics. .

Abstract

Background: Endocrine disruptors (EDs) and their broad range of potential adverse effects in humans and other animals have been a concern for nearly two decades. Many putative EDs are widely used in commercial products regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) such as food packaging materials, ingredients of cosmetics, medical and dental devices, and drugs. The Endocrine Disruptor Knowledge Base (EDKB) project was initiated in the mid 1990's by the FDA as a resource for the study of EDs. The EDKB database, a component of the project, contains data across multiple assay types for chemicals across a broad structural diversity. This paper demonstrates the utility of EDKB database, an integral part of the EDKB project, for understanding and prioritizing EDs for testing.

Results: The EDKB database currently contains 3,257 records of over 1,800 EDs from different assays including estrogen receptor binding, androgen receptor binding, uterotropic activity, cell proliferation, and reporter gene assays. Information for each compound such as chemical structure, assay type, potency, etc. is organized to enable efficient searching. A user-friendly interface provides rapid navigation, Boolean searches on EDs, and both spreadsheet and graphical displays for viewing results. The search engine implemented in the EDKB database enables searching by one or more of the following fields: chemical structure (including exact search and similarity search), name, molecular formula, CAS registration number, experiment source, molecular weight, etc. The data can be cross-linked to other publicly available and related databases including TOXNET, Cactus, ChemIDplus, ChemACX, Chem Finder, and NCI DTP.

Conclusion: The EDKB database enables scientists and regulatory reviewers to quickly access ED data from multiple assays for specific or similar compounds. The data have been used to categorize chemicals according to potential risks for endocrine activity, thus providing a basis for prioritizing chemicals for more definitive but expensive testing. The EDKB database is publicly available and can be found online at http://edkb.fda.gov/webstart/edkb/index.html.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Data flowchart for the EDKB database In house data and literature results are stored in an ORACLE database, which can be communicated with using the interface. The user interface can link chemical knowledge in any one of its components to the other two.
Figure 2
Figure 2
User interface for the EDKB database Six key components of the user interface are numbered and described in the manuscript.
Figure 3
Figure 3
User statistics of the EDKB database Bar graph displaying the number of times the EDKB database was accessed per half year between 2005 and 2009.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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