Receptor targets compound sources

These databases are a rich source of information, yet they do not capture an element of interest, namely the biological endpoint there is no searchable field to identify, in a quantitative manner, what is the target-related activity of a particular compound. Such information is important if one considers that (a) not all chemotypes indexed in patent databases are indeed active - some are just patent claims with no factual basis and that (b) not aU chemotypes disclosed as active are equally active, or selective for that matter, on the target of choice. Furthermore, should one decide to pursue a certain interaction hotspot in a given ligand-receptor structure (assuming good structure-activity models are available), it would be very convenient to mine structure-activity databases for similar chemotypes to use as potential bioisosteric replacements. 

A rich library of tracers exists for the dopamine Systran and perhaps also the serotonin system however, little or nothing currently exists for the assessment of many other neurotransmitter systems in the brain, some of whose receptors have been identified only recently. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are major sources not only of new compounds that target these sites as candidate therapeutics but also of compounds that may serve as radiotracers to evaluate these sites and the effects of disease and treatment. The incentive and raw materials for continued development of functional imaging of the human bram will depend on the establishment of sustained collaborations between academic and government research centers and the pharmaceutical industry. 

The skin of neotropical frogs of the Dendrobatidae family has been a rich source of bioactive compounds [42] such as the alkaloids epibatidine, batrachotoxins, histrionicotoxin, and indolizidines. The latter have been investigated due to their activity as noncompetitive blockers of the nicotinic receptor channels [43]. Because only small amounts are available and due to their pronounced physiological activity, these alkaloids are important targets for organic synthesis [44]. Since... 

D-QSAR. Since compounds are active in three dimensions and their shape and surface properties are major determinants of their activity, the attractiveness of 3D-QSAR methods is intuitively clear. Here conformations of active molecules must be generated and their features captured by use of conformation-dependent descriptors. Despite its conceptual attractiveness, 3D-QSAR faces two major challenges. First, since bioactive conformations are in many cases not known from experiment, they must be predicted. This is often done by systematic conformational analysis and identification of preferred low energy conformations, which presents one of the major uncertainties in 3D-QSAR analysis. In fact, to date there is no computational method available to reliably and routinely predict bioactive molecular conformations. Thus, conformational analysis often only generates a crude approximation of active conformations. In order to at least partly compensate for these difficulties, information from active sites in target proteins is taken into account, if available (receptor-dependent QSAR). Second, once conformations are modeled, they must be correctly aligned in three dimensions, which is another major source of errors in the system set-up for 3D-QSAR studies. 

Compound (details) Plant source (family) / plant parti Odour receptor (OD-R) binding (other targets) 1 in vivo effects/... 

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