Structure-activity relationships molecular biology

PW91 (Perdew, Wang 1991) a gradient corrected DFT method QCI (quadratic conhguration interaction) a correlated ah initio method QMC (quantum Monte Carlo) an explicitly correlated ah initio method QM/MM a technique in which orbital-based calculations and molecular mechanics calculations are combined into one calculation QSAR (quantitative structure-activity relationship) a technique for computing chemical properties, particularly as applied to biological activity QSPR (quantitative structure-property relationship) a technique for computing chemical properties... 

In 1868 two Scottish scientists, Crum Brown and Fraser [4] recognized that a relation exists between the physiological action of a substance and its chemical composition and constitution. That recognition was in effect the birth of the science that has come to be known as quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) studies a QSAR is a mathematical equation that relates a biological or other property to structural and/or physicochemical properties of a series of (usually) related compounds. Shortly afterwards, Richardson [5] showed that the narcotic effect of primary aliphatic alcohols varied with their molecular weight, and in 1893 Richet [6] observed that the toxicities of a variety of simple polar chemicals such as alcohols, ethers, and ketones were inversely correlated with their aqueous solubilities. Probably the best known of the very early work in the field was that of Overton [7] and Meyer [8], who found that the narcotic effect of simple chemicals increased with their oil-water partition coefficient and postulated that this reflected the partitioning of a chemical between the aqueous exobiophase and a lipophilic receptor. This, as it turned out, was most prescient, for about 70% of published QSARs contain a term relating to partition coefficient [9]. 

One of the sources of the fuzziness surrounding these concepts may well be the implicit assumption in structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies that molecular structure contains (i.e. encodes) the information on the biological activity of a given compound. Such an assumption cannot be incorrect, since this would imply the fallacy of SAR studies. However, the assumption becomes misleading if not properly qualified to the effect that the molecular structure of a given compound contains only part of the information on its bioactivity. Indeed, what the structure of a compound encodes is information about the molecular features accounting... 

Testa, B. Drugs as chemical messages molecular structure, biological context, and structure-activity relationships. Med. Chem. Res. 1997, 7, 340-365. 

The applicability of Eq. (45) to a broad range of biological (i.e., toxic, geno-toxic) structure-activity relationships has been demonstrated convincingly by Hansch and associates and many others in the years since 1964 [60-62, 80, 120-122, 160, 161, 195, 204-208, 281-285, 289, 296-298]. The success of this model led to its generalization to include additional parameters in attempts to minimize residual variance in such correlations, a wide variety of physicochemical parameters and properties, structural and topological features, molecular orbital indices, and for constant but for theoretically unaccountable features, indicator or dummy variables (1 or 0) have been employed. A widespread use of Eq. (45) has provided an important stimulus for the review and extension of established scales of substituent effects, and even for the development of new ones. It should be cautioned here, however, that the general validity or indeed the need for these latter scales has not been established. 

The concept of the similarity of molecules has important ramifications for physical, chemical, and biological systems. Grunwald (7) has recently pointed out the constraints of molecular similarity on linear free energy relations and observed that Their accuracy depends upon the quality of the molecular similarity. The use of quantitative structure-activity relationships (2-6) is based on the assumption that similar molecules have similar properties. Herein we present a general and rigorous definition of molecular structural similarity. Previous research in this field has usually been concerned with sequence comparisons of macromolecules, primarily proteins and nucleic acids (7-9). In addition, there have appeared a number of ad hoc definitions of molecular similarity (10-15), many of which are subsumed in the present work. Difficulties associated with attempting to obtain precise numerical indices for qualitative molecular structural concepts have already been extensively discussed in the literature and will not be reviewed here. 

The underlying theory of Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) is that biological activity is directly related to molecular structure. Therefore, molecules with similar structure will possess similar bioactivities for similar proteins/receptors/enzymes and the changes in structure will be represented through the changes in the bioactivities. The best general description of a QSAR model is... 

Glusker, J.P. and Rossi, M., Molecular aspects of chemical carcinogens and bioflavonoids. In Cody, V., Middleton, E., Jr., and Harborne, J.B., eds.. Plant Flavonoids in Biology and Medicine Biochemical, Pharmacological, and Structure-Activity Relationships. New York Alan, R. Liss, 1986, p. 395. 

Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR) The correlation between molecular structure and biological activity. It is usually applied to observing the effect that the systematic structural modification of a particular chemical entity has on a defined biological end-point. 

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