Correlation of PSA with other Molecular Descriptors

SMILES CqCJNCC(C0CI=CC=C(C=C1)CC(=0)NJ0 miSMiLES CC(C)MCqO)COcl ccc(CC(N)=0)ccl 

Descriptors used to characterize molecules in QSAR studies should be as independent of each other (orthogonal) as possible. When using correlated parameters there is an increased danger of obtaining non-predictive, chance correlation [56]. To examine the correlation between PSA (calculated according to the fragment-based protocol [10]) and other descriptors, we studied a collection of 7010 bioactive molecules from the PubChem database [57]. In addition to PSA, the following parameters were used  

CLOGP calculated octanol-water partition coefficient [58] 

All of these parameters (with the possible exception of SAP) are frequently used in QSAR studies or as filters in virtual screening. The SAP descriptor was included to check for correlations between PSA and quantum chemically calculated charges. 

To further analyze the relationships within descriptor space we performed a principle component analysis of the whole data matrix. Descriptors have been normalized before the analysis to have a mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1. The first two principal components explain 78% of variance within the data. The resultant loadings, which characterize contributions of the original descriptors to these principal components, are shown on Fig. 5.8. On the plot we can see that PSA, Hhed and Uhba are indeed closely grouped together. Calculated octanol-water partition coefficient CLOGP is located in the opposite corner of the property space. This analysis also demonstrates that CLOGP and PSA are the two parameters with 

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