A virtual active compound produced from the negative image of a ligand-binding pocket, and its application to in-silico drug screening

J Comput Aided Mol Des. 2006 Apr;20(4):237-48. doi: 10.1007/s10822-006-9047-1. Epub 2006 Jun 21.

Abstract

We developed a new structure-based in-silico screening method using a negative image of a ligand-binding pocket and a multi-protein-compound interaction matrix. Based on the structure of the ligand pocket of the target protein, we designed a negative image, which consists of virtual atoms whose radii are close to those of carbon atoms. The virtual atoms fit the pocket ideally and achieve an optimal Coulomb interaction. A protein-compound docking program calculates the protein-compound interaction matrix for many proteins and many compounds including the negative image, which can be treated as a virtual compound. With specific attention to a vector of docking scores for a single compound with many proteins, we selected a compound whose score vector was similar to that of the negative image as a candidate hit compound. This method was applied to representative target proteins and showed high database enrichment with a relatively quick procedure.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Binding Sites
  • Cyclooxygenase 2 / chemistry
  • Cyclooxygenase 2 / metabolism
  • Databases, Protein
  • Drug Design*
  • Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / methods*
  • In Vitro Techniques
  • Ligands
  • Macrophage Migration-Inhibitory Factors / chemistry
  • Macrophage Migration-Inhibitory Factors / metabolism
  • Models, Molecular
  • Thermolysin / chemistry
  • Thermolysin / metabolism
  • User-Computer Interface

Substances

  • Ligands
  • Macrophage Migration-Inhibitory Factors
  • Cyclooxygenase 2
  • Thermolysin