Molecular dynamics-based virtual screening: accelerating the drug discovery process by high-performance computing

J Chem Inf Model. 2013 Oct 28;53(10):2757-64. doi: 10.1021/ci400391s. Epub 2013 Sep 18.

Abstract

High-performance computing (HPC) has become a state strategic technology in a number of countries. One hypothesis is that HPC can accelerate biopharmaceutical innovation. Our experimental data demonstrate that HPC can significantly accelerate biopharmaceutical innovation by employing molecular dynamics-based virtual screening (MDVS). Without using HPC, MDVS for a 10K compound library with tens of nanoseconds of MD simulations requires years of computer time. In contrast, a state of the art HPC can be 600 times faster than an eight-core PC server is in screening a typical drug target (which contains about 40K atoms). Also, careful design of the GPU/CPU architecture can reduce the HPC costs. However, the communication cost of parallel computing is a bottleneck that acts as the main limit of further virtual screening improvements for drug innovations.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Binding Sites
  • Databases, Chemical
  • Databases, Protein
  • Drug Discovery
  • HIV Protease / chemistry*
  • HIV Protease Inhibitors / chemistry*
  • High-Throughput Screening Assays / economics
  • High-Throughput Screening Assays / instrumentation
  • Humans
  • Ligands
  • Molecular Docking Simulation
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation*
  • Neuraminidase / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Neuraminidase / chemistry*
  • PPAR alpha / antagonists & inhibitors
  • PPAR alpha / chemistry*
  • Protein Binding
  • Small Molecule Libraries / chemistry*
  • Structure-Activity Relationship
  • Thermodynamics
  • User-Computer Interface*

Substances

  • HIV Protease Inhibitors
  • Ligands
  • PPAR alpha
  • Small Molecule Libraries
  • Neuraminidase
  • HIV Protease