pyCSRML 0.2

Unofficial Python implementation of CSRML chemotype fingerprints (ToxPrint v2 and TxP_PFAS v1).

pyCSRML

pyCSRML is a pure-Python re-implementation of the Chemical Subgraph Representation Markup Language (CSRML). It parses CSRML XML files, converts the subgraph patterns to SMARTS, and computes binary chemotype fingerprints for molecules using RDKit.

The module is not an exact replicate of the original CSRML (see performance section). the original software should be preferred.

The module was implemented from two fingerprints descriptions:

Fingerprint	Bits	Description	Sourcde
ToxPrint v2.0	729	General toxicologically relevant substructures	Yang et al. 2015
TxP_PFAS v1.0	129	Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) chemotypes	Richard et al. 2023

Disclaimer

This module is not affiliated with the authors of the original CSRML project. Visit Chemotyper repository if you want to access and use the original CSRML.

Performance

Accuracy is measured by comparing pyCSRML bit vectors against the reference ChemoTyper tool output for ToxCast invitrodb v4.3 substances and against data from Richard et al. 2023 (SI Tables S2 and S5).
Run pytest tests/test_chemotyper_concordance.py -v -s to reproduce; the full per-bit breakdown is written to tests/concordance_report.md.

Dataset	Compounds	Fingerprint	Overall accuracy	Bits ≥ 90 % acc
Richard et al. 2023 (PFAS set)	14 710	TxP_PFAS v1	99.4 %	—
ToxCast (full)	9 014	ToxPrint v2	98.17 %	711 / 729
ToxCast (CF-containing subset)	808	TxP_PFAS v1	99.98 %	129 / 129

Reading the table: "CF-containing subset" means only the 808 ToxCast compounds for which ChemoTyper sets at least one TxP_PFAS bit — the meaningful subset for PFAS accuracy benchmarking. Full-dataset TxP_PFAS accuracy appears inflated (100 %) because the vast majority of compounds are all-zero for every PFAS bit.

Known discrepancies

The 18 bits below 90 % accuracy in ToxPrint v2 are all in the metal / inorganic chemotype groups; TxP_PFAS v1 has 4 bits below 100 % (all above 98.9 %).
Root causes (see tests/_check_tsv_alignment.py and tests/concordance_report.md):

Bit / category	Fingerprint	Accuracy	Direction	Root cause
atom:element_noble_gas	ToxPrint	0.0 %	False positives	Noble-gas SMARTS approximated as [*] — matches every atom
atom:element_metal_group_III, atom:element_metal_poor_metal, etc.	ToxPrint	0.1 – 5 %	False positives	Metal / metalloid element-group patterns use G/Q pseudo-elements that are approximated as [*], causing widespread false positives
ring:hetero_[6]_N_tetrazine_generic, ring:hetero_[6]_N_triazine_generic	ToxPrint	30 – 32 %	False positives	Nitrogen-count constraints in 6-membered heteroaromatic rings use atom-count SMARTS that over-match similar rings
pfas_chain:alkeneLinear_mono-ene_ethylene_generic_F	TxP_PFAS	98.9 %	False negatives (recall 40 %)	RDKit perceives the C=C of tautomeric fluoropyrimidines (5-fluorouracil) as aromatic; the SMARTS [#9]-[#6;A]=[#6;A] requires aliphatic atoms and misses them
pfas_bond:C=N_imine_FCN	TxP_PFAS	99.5 %	False negatives (recall 33 %)	Same aromaticity issue: the C=N bond in fluorinated heterocycles is perceived as aromatic by RDKit, so the aliphatic imine SMARTS does not match
pfas_bond:aromatic_FCc1c	TxP_PFAS	99.5 %	Slight false positives (precision 97.2 %)	Aromatic F-C pattern slightly over-matches due to SMARTS approximation of the exception clause

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Installation

The module needs RDKit installed. If necessary, start by installing a environment manager first (e.g. Conda/Mamba, like Miniforge3) and creating an environment, e.g.:

mamba create -n rdkit pytho
mamba activate rdkit
mamba install -y -c rdkit rdkit

Then install pyCSRML via PyPI:

pip install pyCSRML

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Quick start

Single molecule

from pyCSRML import PFASFingerprinter
from rdkit import Chem

fp = PFASFingerprinter()

mol = Chem.MolFromSmiles("FC(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(=O)O")  # PFOA
arr, names = fp.fingerprint(mol)

print(f"Bits set: {arr.sum()} / {fp.n_bits}")
on_bits = [names[i] for i in range(len(arr)) if arr[i]]
print(on_bits[:5])

Multiple molecules with analysis

from pyCSRML import PFASFingerprinter, from_fingerprinter

fp = PFASFingerprinter()

smiles = [
    "FC(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(=O)O",   # PFOA
    "FC(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)S(=O)(=O)O",  # PFOS
    "FCCCF",    # simple difluoro
    "CCO",      # negative control
]

eset = from_fingerprinter(fp, smiles_list=smiles, names=["PFOA", "PFOS", "4F-propane", "EtOH"])
eset.plot(kind="heatmap")

ToxPrint fingerprints (729 bits)

from pyCSRML import ToxPrintFingerprinter
from rdkit import Chem

fp = ToxPrintFingerprinter()
mol = Chem.MolFromSmiles("c1ccccc1")
arr, names = fp.fingerprint(mol)
print(f"Benzene: {arr.sum()} bits set")

Low-level CSRML parsing

from pyCSRML._csrml import parse_csrml_xml, ordered_bit_list

data = parse_csrml_xml("path/to/my_fingerprints.xml")
bits = ordered_bit_list(data)
for bit in bits[:3]:
    print(bit["id"], bit["smarts"])

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API overview

Class / function	Module	Description
PFASFingerprinter	pyCSRML	129-bit TxP_PFAS fingerprinter
ToxPrintFingerprinter	pyCSRML	729-bit ToxPrint v2 fingerprinter
Fingerprinter	pyCSRML	Base class; load any CSRML XML or JSON
Embedding	pyCSRML	Single-compound fingerprint container with metadata
EmbeddingSet	pyCSRML	Multi-compound container with heatmap / UMAP / clustering
from_fingerprinter	pyCSRML	Convenience factory: list of SMILES → EmbeddingSet
parse_csrml_xml	pyCSRML._csrml	Parse raw CSRML XML → Python dict
ordered_bit_list	pyCSRML._csrml	Return all bits in order from a parsed dict

Full API reference: pycsrml.readthedocs.io

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CSRML features supported

Feature	Status
substructureMatch → SMARTS	✅ Full
substructureException (global)	✅ Full
matchingQueryAtom → [!$(...)] folding	✅ Full
combineAtomFeatures (OR-of-AND trees)	✅ Full
atomList with negate="true"	✅ Full
attachedHydrogenCount ranges	✅ Full
ringCountAtom / ringAtom / chainAtom	✅ Full
Pseudo-elements G, Z, Q, X	✅ Full
mustMatch / mustNotMatch (test cases)	parsed, not used for matching

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Development

git clone https://github.com/luc-miaz/pyCSRML
cd pyCSRML
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests (fast)
pytest -m "not slow"

# Run concordance test (~45 s)
pytest tests/test_chemotyper_concordance.py -v -s

# Pylint
pylint pyCSRML/

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Citation

If you use pyCSRML in academic work, please cite the original ToxPrint / ChemoTyper paper and the TxP_PFAS reference:

• Yang, C., et al. (2015). New publicly available chemical query language, CSRML, to support chemotype representations for application to data mining and modelling. J. Chem. Inf. Model. 55, 510–528.
• Richard, A.M., et al. (2023). ToxPrint chemotypes and ChemoTyper portal. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 36, 488–510.

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Licence

pyCSRML © 1999 by Luc T. Miaz is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Acknowledgments

While working on this project I was part of the ZeroPM project (WP2) and received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101036756. This work was developed at the Department of Environmental Science at Stockholm University.