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Issues in Toxicology
Series editors:
Diana Anderson, University of Bradford, UK
Michael D. Waters, Michael Waters Consulting, USA
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Editorial advisor:
Alok Dhawan, CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, India
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Computational Systems
Pharmacology and Toxicology
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Edited by
Dale E. Johnson
University of Michigan, USA
Email: [email protected]
Rudy J. Richardson
University of Michigan, USA
Email: [email protected]
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes or for
private study, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003, this publication may
not be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior
permission in writing of The Royal Society of Chemistry or the copyright owner, or in
the case of reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency in the UK, or in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the
appropriate Reproduction Rights Organization outside the UK. Enquiries concerning
reproduction outside the terms stated here should be sent to The Royal Society of
Chemistry at the address printed on this page.
Whilst this material has been produced with all due care, The Royal Society of Chemistry
cannot be held responsible or liable for its accuracy and completeness, nor for any
consequences arising from any errors or the use of the information contained in this
publication. The publication of advertisements does not constitute any endorsement by
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of Chemistry which shall not be liable for any resulting loss or damage arising as a result
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The Royal Society of Chemistry is a charity, registered in England and Wales, Number
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Preface
vii
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viii Preface
in the system-wide biological responses to chemicals. A pharmacological or
toxicological effect may begin with atomic-level binding, but ultimately the
intact organism responds in a holistic manner. It is necessary to continually
readjust our focus by many orders of magnitude to encompass the spectrum
from molecular orbitals to human populations.
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The tools and models discussed in the book hold tremendous promise
for advancing applied and basic science, streamlining drug efficacy and
safety testing, and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of risk assess-
ment for environmental chemicals. The content of chapters is designed to
provide readers with an understanding of the basic principles and current
methods of computational pharmacology and toxicology. These principles
and approaches are discussed in several chapters in order to show how to
connect chemicals with diseases and associated genes, and how to create
pharmacology/toxicology connectivity maps or networks.
Vital to these expositions of principles and methods are illustrations of
modeling and/or predicting potential pharmacological or toxicological
effects from multiple properties. These characteristics include chemical
structure, inference from similar compounds, in silico target identification,
exposure, bioaccumulation, environmental persistence, biomarkers, and
networks of biological pathways affected by a chemical.
Systems toxicology approaches used in the safer design of chemicals and
identification of safer alternatives, which are major parts of global green
chemistry initiatives, are also discussed, along with the concept of the
adverse outcome pathway and modeling approaches for hazard identification
and risk assessments for large numbers of environmental chemicals for
which supporting data are sparse.
The book also expands the conventional boundaries of research and
development of pharmaceutical agents. Thus, traditional Chinese medicines
that include recipes containing several pharmacologically active phytochem-
icals are becoming role models of polypharmacy research.
The final chapter describes an inquiry-based computational toxicology
course. Students work in small cooperative groups and are given tools, data,
and basic concepts to solve toxicity-related environmental, public health,
and/or disease-oriented problems in novel ways. Several case studies serve
both to educate the reader and to provide material for teaching.
As co-editors, we are each involved in research and education on the topics
covered in the book. We have authored or co-authored several of the chapters
ourselves, and the other chapters have been written by experts recruited
from around the world.
Dale E. Johnson and Rudy J. Richardson
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Contents
1.1 I ntroduction 1
1.2 Systems Toxicology 2
1.3 Chemical Toxicities 3
1.3.1 Single-Target Toxicity Concepts 3
1.3.2 Toxicological Profiling for Potential Adverse
Reactions 5
1.3.3 Toxicological Concepts for Safer Chemical
Design 6
1.3.4 Biomarkers 8
1.4 Environmental Toxicology 9
1.4.1 Adverse Outcome Pathway 9
1.4.2 Expanding Exposure Concepts 10
1.4.3 Exposome 11
1.5 Systems and Network Pharmacology 12
1.5.1 Secondary Pharmacology and Off-Target
Effects 13
1.5.2 Prediction of Potential Adverse
Effects 14
1.6 Conclusions 14
References 14
ix
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x Contents
Chapter 2 Databases Facilitating Systems Biology Approaches in
Toxicology 19
Dale E. Johnson and Ann M. H. Heslin
2.1 I ntroduction 19
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3.1 I ntroduction 37
3.2 Physiochemical, Genotoxicity, and Blood–Brain
Barrier Passage Properties of Chemicals 38
3.3 Tools for Green Molecular Design 39
3.3.1 Expert Systems 39
3.3.2 Decision Trees 44
3.3.3 QSAR Tools 44
3.3.4 Representative Tools 45
3.4 Case Study 50
3.5 The Design of Ideal Tools for Chemists 51
3.6 Conclusions 54
References 54
4.1 I ntroduction 60
4.2 The AOP Framework: An Organizing Principle for
Toxicological Data 64
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Contents xi
4.2.1 AOP Knowledge Management 67
4.2.2 Phases of AOP Development 68
4.2.3 Data Resources for AOP Development 70
4.3 Environmental Exposure and Pharmacokinetic
Considerations for Adverse Outcome Development 73
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5.1 I ntroduction 89
5.2 Pharmacokinetic and Toxicokinetic Models 91
5.2.1 Structural Models 91
5.2.2 Variance Models 98
5.3 PK/PD Relationships 102
5.3.1 Mathematical Description of
Pharmacodynamic Effects 104
5.3.2 Combined PK/PD and TK/TD Modeling 109
5.3.3 Modeling Pharmacodynamics in the Absence
of Pharmacokinetic Data: K-PD Models 110
5.4 Modeling Drug Interactions with Phytochemicals 111
5.4.1 Inhibition of Metabolism 112
5.4.2 Induction of Metabolism 113
5.4.3 Enhancement of Absorption 114
5.4.4 Inhibition of Absorption 115
5.4.5 Modeling of Pharmacodynamic Interactions 115
5.5 Conclusions 116
References 116
xii Contents
6.3 Q uantitative Structure–Activity/Property
Relationships (QSAR/QSPR) 142
6.3.1 Congeneric Series and Consistent
Mechanisms 143
6.3.2 Diverse Series and Big Data 148
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Contents xiii
8.5 S AR Modeling 197
8.6 Computational Modeling of Toxicity Pathways 198
8.6.1 Concept of Toxicity Pathways 198
8.6.2 Purpose of Modeling Toxicity Pathways 199
8.6.3 How to Model Toxicity Pathways 200
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xiv Contents
10.2.3 T CMSP (Traditional Chinese Medicine
Systems Pharmacology Database and
Analysis Platform) 246
10.2.4 TCMGeneDIT (A Database for Associated
TCM, Gene and Disease Information Using
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Contents xv
12.3 C omputational CDCL Studies with Commercial
Tools 289
12.4 Herb–Drug Interactions 292
12.4.1 Pharmacokinetic Interactions 292
12.4.2 Pharmacogenomic-Related Interactions 294
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Chapter 1
1.1 Introduction
The science and practical field of toxicology has been changing dramatically
over the last 15–20 years, transitioning into a more systems biology and net-
work-based approach.1–4 Several factors have been involved, including the
developing genomics era where the understanding of genetic changes has
enhanced the ability to understand diseases and chemically-induced toxic-
ities at the molecular level. The genomics era has also ushered in “omics”
technologies and approaches such as transcriptomics, metabolomics,
proteomics, and epigenomics, which have changed the way we view mech-
anisms of toxicity and the perturbation of biological systems that lead to
adverse outcomes.5 These advances have been coupled with the public avail-
ability of large datasets of information and new modeling approaches that
have enhanced the ability to understand toxicological events and effects at
multiple biological levels.6 Since our scientific approaches, inquiries, and
visions aimed at understanding toxicological events and outcomes have
1
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2 Chapter 1
been broadened tremendously, this reinforces our need for new and better
ways to assess toxicity and risk. The large numbers of uncharacterized chem-
icals already present in the environment and new chemicals that continue
to enter it has required hazard and risk assessments to be made with very
few data. These factors have had a major influence on the need to accelerate
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4 Chapter 1
In the United States, ∼2 million patients are affected with drug-mediated
adverse effects per year, of which ∼5% are fatal.16 This places drug toxicity
as one of the top five causes of death in the United States, and the costs to
the health care system worldwide are estimated at US$40–50 billion per
year.16 In drug development there are always risk–benefit considerations,
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which will weigh any potential toxicity against the benefit expected to be
gained by a patient taking the drug. An example of the uncertainty of these
estimates can be seen in the methods used for carcinogenicity testing and
evaluation for drug approval. The design of these studies rely on high-dose
exposure to animals and default linear extrapolation procedures, while
little consideration is given to many of the new advances in the toxicological
sciences.17 Carcinogenicity studies are typically 2-year studies in rodents
conducted with three dosage groups (low, mid, and high dose) and one or
two concurrent control groups. Dose levels are established from previous
studies, such as 13-week toxicity studies, where a MTD has been estimated.
Each group in the carcinogenicity study has 60–70 animals of each sex, and
the analysis of whether there is a potential carcinogenicity concern is based
on an analysis of each tumor in each tissue or organ system individually
by gender; certain tumors are combined via standardized procedures for
statistical analysis. The analysis uses the historical database from the labo-
ratory where the studies are conducted to determine whether each tumor is
considered common or rare, using the background incidence of 1% as the
standard. Common tumors are those with a background incidence of 1%
or over and rare tumors are those with a background incidence below 1%.
In the statistical analysis, p-values for rare and common tumors are evalu-
ated for pair-wise significance at 0.05 (for rare) and 0.01 (for common). The
rare vs. common tumor classification is an arbitrary tumor threshold and
adjustments to the specific classifications by individual tumor, which can
occur from laboratory to laboratory and via analyses of different control
groups, can have consequences in the overall tumor evaluation outcome.8
Applying a “weight of evidence” approach into the evaluation procedures,
particularly during regulatory review, attempts to alleviate some of the
uncertainties; however, after more than 50 years of on-going experience,
these studies still fail to bring the 21st century mindset to carcinogenic-
ity testing. The classic toxicological process for drug development assumes
that a chemical interacts with a higher affinity to a single macromolecule
(the toxicological target), and therefore a single biological pathway may
be perturbed at the initial target modulation. This would be followed by
downstream activation of secondary and possibly tertiary pathways that
result in the tissue or organ effect as indicated by key biomarkers.2 In this
concept, the magnitude of toxicological effects are related to the concen-
tration of altered molecular targets (at the site of interest), which in turn is
related to the concentration of the active form of the chemical (parent com-
pound or metabolite) at the site where the molecular targets are located.
Also included in this concept is the unique susceptibility of the organism
exposed to the compound.
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generated through high throughput and targeted screening, and in vitro and
in vivo toxicology studies on thousands of compounds and structural ana-
logues. In a majority of cases these data also include findings from clinical
trials where an experimental drug was tested on humans.
The information is applied in a “backward” fashion to predict potential
findings where data do not yet exist or where decisions are being made
on new potential drug candidates. Bowes and colleagues18 have described
a pharmacological profiling effort by four large pharmaceutical compa-
nies: AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Pfizer. The companies
suggest that ∼75% of adverse drug reactions can be predicted by studying
pharmacological profiles of candidate drugs. The pharmacological screen-
ing identifies primary effects related to the intended action of the candi-
date drug, whereas identification of secondary effects due to interactions
with targets other than the primary (intended) target could be related to
off-target adverse events. The groups have identified 44 screening targets
including 24 G-protein coupled receptors, eight ion channels, six intracel-
lular enzymes, three neurotransmitter transporters, two nuclear receptors,
and one kinase. These types of screening data are used in the data ware-
house model, typically configured in a proprietary fashion within each
company. Other collaborative efforts have been developed and data from
these sources would also be incorporated.
Blomme and Will19 have reviewed the current and past efforts by the phar-
maceutical industry to optimize safety into molecules at the earliest stage
of drug research. They conclude that new and emerging technologies in the
past two decades have had limited impact on nonclinical attrition rates asso-
ciated with safety issues. In addition, they point out that front-loading series
of toxicology assays to “kill early, kill often” have been challenged due to high
false-positive rates and an overall low positive predictive value. The primary
issue cited is the lack of information on an efficacious exposures (PK/PD)
and the fact that the assays are more likely to represent hazard identifica-
tion and not risk assessment. Therefore, it is suggested that these data be
used as alerts rather than discontinuance criteria. In a more systems toxi-
cology approach, a large effort is now being directed towards understanding
the extent of pharmacological modulation of both precedented and unprec-
edented targets in relation to potential safety liabilities and developing tech-
nologies to determine achievable therapeutic windows. Blomme and Will19
discuss efforts at AbbVie and Pfizer where target safety assessments are
explored. The assessments include the biology of the target, tissue expres-
sion maps, messenger RNA and proteins, human genetic data, phenotypes
from genetically engineered animal models, historical data from on-going
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6 Chapter 1
and past clinical trials targeting similar targets and associated pathways,
extensive datamining via biomedical databases, and in silico simulation of
the various consequences of target modulation. The majority of systems
research in drug safety use specific toxicities as the starting point. Ivanov
and colleagues20 discuss the use of specific methods to counteract ventricu-
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lar tachyarrhythmia (VT). While the in vitro HERG potassium channel assay
is used universally as a predictor of VT, this is only one mechanism of action
and other targets must also be identified and explored. These researchers
have used the following approach: (1) creation of VT positive and negative
compound libraries; (2) in silico prediction of extensive drug–target interac-
tion profiles of chemical libraries identifying potential VT-related targets;
(3) gene ontology and pathway enrichment on these potential VT targets to
elucidate potential biological processes; (4) creation of a cardiomyocyte reg-
ulatory network based on general and heart-specific signaling and regula-
tory pathways; and (5) simulation of the changes in the regulatory network
caused by the inhibition at each node in order to define potential VT-related
targets. These are the type of studies that lead to more refined in vitro and in
silico assessments of potential drug adverse effects at the early stage of drug
research.
Verbist and colleagues21 have outlined another type of systems toxicol-
ogy proposal at Janssen involving QSTAR (quantitative structure-transcrip-
tion-assay relationships) by integrating high-throughput gene expression
profiling data; chemical information, particularly detailed analogue analysis;
and bioassay data. Using several compounds from a single chemical scaffold
targeting PDE10A, a target of pharmacological interest at Janssen, changes
in tubulin gene expression were identified in a subset of compounds. There-
fore a screening process was developed involving multiple cell lines, gene
expression profiling, in vitro micronucleus assays, and high-content imaging
to show microtubule aggregates as compared to other phenotypes. Besides
the chemical series of interest, known positive and negative compounds
were included in the process. This study presents a valuable proof-of-
concept of how to link and potentially improve the risk assessment in early
drug discovery using several technologies in a drug research systems
toxicology approach.
general method can be applied to any specific hazard, any series of chem-
icals, and any assay methodology. Examples of hazard categories include
carcinogenicity; reproductive and developmental; mutagenicity; neurotoxic-
ity; endocrine disruption; cardiovascular; dermatotoxicity; digestive system
toxicity; hematotoxicity; hepatotoxicity; immunotoxicity; muscular toxicity;
nephrotoxicity; ocular toxicity; ototoxicity; respiratory toxicity; persistence in
the environment; bioaccumulative in the environment; toxic to water organ-
isms; water contaminant; and air pollutant. Structural motif alert and expert
predictions can be achieved using OpenTox,23 an open access system used
to predict potential hazards from chemical structures and known chemical
motifs associated with human health and environmental endpoints, and
Derek from Lhasa,24 a rule-based expert system that de-convolutes a chemical
structure into sub-structural fragments and addresses potential toxicity con-
sistent with the above hazard categories. The software is also used to create
specific local expert predictions from screening data. Meteor (Lhasa) predicts
potential metabolites and the metabolite structures can be used in Derek
predictions. This type of inquiry is highly useful for establishing basic infor-
mation for rank-ordering compounds, as in early candidate selection, and in
the process of safer chemical synthesis. Multiple screening approaches have
been used for evaluation of chemical toxicity using high-throughput tech-
nology and multiple assays. These include the United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) ToxCast program25 where over 2000 chemicals have
been evaluated in over 700 high-throughput assays. This is a section of the
Tox21 testing program, a collaboration among EPA, the National Institutes
of Health (NIH), including the National Center for Advancing Translational
Sciences at the National Toxicology Program at the National Institute of Envi-
ronmental Health Sciences, and the United States Food and Drug Admin-
istration. The Tox21 program involves high-throughput screening of more
than 10 000 environmental chemicals and approved drugs using more than
100 assays. All data are publicly available, as discussed later. Wink and col-
leagues26 discuss a quantitative high-content imaging in vitro process to elu-
cidate chemical interactions with cellular adaptive stress response pathways
to gain a better insight into chemical toxicities at a phenotypic cellular level.
The key to their reported technology is a panel of reporter cell lines to mon-
itor multiple key nodes of the adaptive stress response pathways. Examples
include cellular redox homeostasis, unfolded protein response, endoplas-
mic reticulum damage, inflammatory signaling, and DNA damage response.
These assays hold the potential to be incorporated into multiple large-scale
screens to evaluate health-related chemically-induced biological phenomena
in drug research as well as hazard identification.
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8 Chapter 1
1.3.4 Biomarkers
Biomarkers are typically used to define the onset, continuation, and
either positive or negative characteristics of the induced biological effects
of the drug (chemical) under research. Biomarkers have been classified
as biomarkers of exposure, susceptibility, and outcome. The definition of
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the environment, and ∼2000 new chemicals are introduced each year. Unlike
drugs, for the majority of these compounds, there is limited or inadequate
toxicological information with which to make rational evaluations of risk.2
Where information exists or is associated from similar structures of anal-
ogous compounds, a risk assessor may arrive at various hazard reference
values, such as a derived no-effect level, to estimate an acceptable level of
protection of human or wildlife health and the environment.5 Depending
on the context and urgency of the risk assessment, which could include the
classification of a chemical in terms of hazard severity and risk management
assessment, several assumptions must be made which could cause the level
of uncertainty to increase.
10 Chapter 1
(5) Population responses, such as alterations in the structure of a popu-
lation and potential extinction of species within regional and global
environments.
In defining the key aspects of an AOP, macro-molecular interactions (1)
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are considered the initiating event, which is called “anchor 1”, and the organ
and population responses (4 and 5) are considered adverse outcomes at the
organism or population level, collectively called “anchor 2”. The aspects of
connecting the initiating events to outcomes can take various forms, depend-
ing on the chemical itself and the amount of information available, includ-
ing in vivo, in vitro, and computational sources. These various linkages also
help to define key assays and technologies to enhance information collection
and usage for each individual AOP. Ankley and colleagues6 provide five case
studies that illustrate these points. Events occurring in the information flow
between the molecular initiating event and adverse outcome are called inter-
mediate events.28 When an intermediate event represents a biological event
that is necessary for an adverse outcome to occur and is quantitatively mea-
surable, it is considered to be a key event. In a systems toxicology approach,
key event relationships between adjacent molecular initiating events, key
events and adverse outcomes help define alternative approaches to assess
environmental hazards. In a signaling pathway, this could be upstream or
downstream events that help define more suitable assays or test systems and
provide a faster quantitative evaluation of potential adverse outcomes. One of
the challenges in the AOP process is to define or estimate the exposure of the
xenobiotic in the relevant species under consideration for risk assessment.
Once when Betty was starting to leave the room, she caught at
the girl’s hand, pressing it for a moment to her withered old cheek.
When it was all ready—complete even to the maid with white cap
and apron—they proudly bore the old lady to her new home,
triumphantly exhibiting the results of their work.
The old lady seemed completely carried away with delight. And so
they were taken totally unawares when after an inspection of the
four rooms the owner of the pretty bungalow dropped into a deep-
seated, gayly-cushioned chair and, covering her face with her hands,
began to weep silently.
Days followed during which the girls were almost always with
Isabella Weeks. Through all the red tape of legal procedure she
insisted on their presence. And though her health seemed to
improve daily, owing to good food and good care and lack of worry,
the girls noticed that she was restless and uneasy, seeming always
to listen for some one who did not come.
Betty heard from the young lawyer nearly every day, but he gave
no assurance that he would be able to locate James Barton. In fact,
he was so noncommittal about the result of his search that the girls
finally began to believe the worst.
Then one evening, as Betty read to the old lady and the rest of
the girls lounged about the pretty living room, there was a sudden
sounding of a motor horn from without the house that drew them all
to their feet.
The little old lady turned suddenly white, her hand flew to her
throat. Betty, having glanced out the window, came over and laid a
quieting hand on the old lady’s shoulder. One would never have told
from Betty’s voice how her heart was thumping.
“It’s Allen,” she said, softly. “And he has some one with him.”
The next moment the door was flung open and Allen himself
stepped inside the room. Beside him was one of the handsomest old
gentlemen the girls had ever seen. Erect and soldierly in his bearing,
broad-shouldered and ruddy of face, with a mass of curly iron gray
hair, he was the kind of man one instinctively turns and stares after
in the street.
There was a moment of tense silence while the two who had been
lovers in their youth looked deep into each other’s eyes. Then James
Barton started forward, eager hands outstretched.
“Isabella!” he cried. “After all the wasted years I’ve come to you!
Are you glad?”
“Oh, my dear!” the words seemed wrung from the little old lady as
she lifted her face to him. “All my life—I think—I’ve waited for this
moment——”
THE END
This Isn’t All!
Would you like to know what became of the good friends you have
made in this book?
On the reverse side of the wrapper which comes with this book,
you will find a wonderful list of stories which you can buy at the
same store where you got this book.
One dark, dreary night, in the pouring rain, a little girl comes
tapping at the door of Barbara’s home. Who is she? Where is she
from? Have the strange Armenians with their beautiful embroideries
anything to do with her? Barbara has many anxious moments
before she finds the answers to these questions.
NANCY BRANDON
JUDY JORDAN
Judy seeks a writing career in New York City and makes many
interesting friends—the wealthy Estelle who wants to run away for
excitement, “Lord Dinny” who wants to write, too—and Dave Lane,
a successful and friendly reporter.
The mysterious but attractive man living alone in the Old Stewart
place piques Judy’s curiosity—and when she finally discovers his
true identity she has the surprise of her life.
Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.
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