Polymer science applied to biological problems: Prediction of cytotoxic drug interactions with DNA

It is taken for granted in the polymer world that the fundamental thermodynamic insights of Hansen solubility parameters (HSP) can be used to predict solvent/chemical interactions with polymers. The same principles should apply equally to bio-molecules interacting with that key polymer, DNA. A necessary (but not sufficient) condition for a drug to be cytotoxic is that it penetrates cell walls and be (thermodynamically) compatible with the core of the DNA polymer. The HSP of 9 cytotoxic drugs conform well to the basic HSP principle that “like (cell walls, DNA) attracts like (all 9 drugs)”. A correlation is not proof. But at the very least, HSP offer a fecund methodology for making predictions not only of how single molecules might interact with biological polymers, but how mixtures of chemicals could be more potent than the individual components. It is predicted, for example, that alcohols would provide synergism with many chemicals with their mixtures having higher affinity for the DNA bases than the individual components.