Docking
5
Computational Virtual Screening Towards Designing Novel Anticancer Drugs
Po-Yuan Chen1,2
1Department
of Biological Science and Technology, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, 2Brain Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 1Republic of China 2Canada
1. Introduction
Generally speaking, Docking is most popular and critical issue in this research field, because it contains most important information both Ligands (Drugs) and Receptors (it can be intracellular protein, trans-membrane protein or extracellular protein). However, when the ligand’s information is not sufficient, it needs other calculation strategies to design and “modify” the ligands, and theoretically improve the drug effects, and that is called De Novo Evolution Drug Design. Current methods for structure-based drug design can be divided roughly into two categories. The first category is about “finding” ligands for a given receptor, which is usually referred as database searching. In this case, a large number of potential ligand molecules are screened to find those fitting the binding pocket of the receptor. This method is usually referred as structure-based drug design. The key advantage of database searching is that it saves synthetic effort to obtain new lead compounds. Another category of structure-based drug design methods is about “building” ligands, which is usually referred as receptor-based drug design. In this case, ligand molecules are built up within the constraints of the binding pocket by assembling small pieces in a stepwise manner. These pieces can be either individual atoms or molecular fragments. The key advantage of such a method is that novel structures, not contained in any database, can be suggested. These techniques are raising much excitement to the drug design community. Above two computational methods, the first is called virtual screening by Docking (the drugs are well prepared and need to be screen out the most suitable candidates), and the
Computational Virtual Screening Towards Designing Novel Anticancer Drugs
Po-Yuan Chen1,2
1Department
of Biological Science and Technology, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, 2Brain Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 1Republic of China 2Canada
1. Introduction
Generally speaking, Docking is most popular and critical issue in this research field, because it contains most important information both Ligands (Drugs) and Receptors (it can be intracellular protein, trans-membrane protein or extracellular protein). However, when the ligand’s information is not sufficient, it needs other calculation strategies to design and “modify” the ligands, and theoretically improve the drug effects, and that is called De Novo Evolution Drug Design. Current methods for structure-based drug design can be divided roughly into two categories. The first category is about “finding” ligands for a given receptor, which is usually referred as database searching. In this case, a large number of potential ligand molecules are screened to find those fitting the binding pocket of the receptor. This method is usually referred as structure-based drug design. The key advantage of database searching is that it saves synthetic effort to obtain new lead compounds. Another category of structure-based drug design methods is about “building” ligands, which is usually referred as receptor-based drug design. In this case, ligand molecules are built up within the constraints of the binding pocket by assembling small pieces in a stepwise manner. These pieces can be either individual atoms or molecular fragments. The key advantage of such a method is that novel structures, not contained in any database, can be suggested. These techniques are raising much excitement to the drug design community. Above two computational methods, the first is called virtual screening by Docking (the drugs are well prepared and need to be screen out the most suitable candidates), and the
References: How to reference In order to correctly reference this scholarly work, feel free to copy and paste the following: Po-Yuan Chen (2012) InTech China Unit 405, Office Block, Hotel Equatorial Shanghai No.65, Yan An Road (West), Shanghai, 200040, China Phone: +86-21-62489820 Fax: +86-21-62489821