Assessing relative bioactivity of chemical substances using quantitative molecular network topology analysis

J Chem Inf Model. 2012 May 25;52(5):1238-49. doi: 10.1021/ci200429f. Epub 2012 Apr 24.

Abstract

Structurally different chemical substances may cause similar systemic effects in mammalian cells. It is therefore necessary to go beyond structural comparisons to quantify similarity in terms of their bioactivities. In this work, we introduce a generic methodology to achieve this on the basis of Network Biology principles and using publicly available molecular network topology information. An implementation of this method, denoted QuantMap, is outlined and applied to antidiabetic drugs, NSAIDs, 17β-estradiol, and 12 substances known to disrupt estrogenic pathways. The similarity of any pair of compounds is derived from topological comparison of intracellular protein networks, directly and indirectly associated with the respective query chemicals, via a straightforward pairwise comparison of ranked proteins. Although output derived from straightforward chemical/structural similarity analysis provided some guidance on bioactivity, QuantMap produced substance interrelationships that align well with reports on their respective perturbation properties. We believe that QuantMap has potential to provide substantial assistance to drug repositioning, pharmacology evaluation, and toxicology risk assessment.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation*
  • Models, Chemical*
  • Molecular Structure
  • Pharmaceutical Preparations / chemistry*

Substances

  • Pharmaceutical Preparations