Three-dimensional ligand-based models

Varady J, Wu X, Fang X, Min J, Hu Z, Levant B, Wang S. Molecular modeling of the three-dimensional structure of dopamine 3 (D3) subtype receptor discovery of novel and potent D3 ligands through a hybrid pharmacophore-and structure-based database searching approach. / Med Chem 2003 46 4377-92. 

This example is one where the accurate three-dimensional structure of the protein is unknown under these circumstances, it is necessary to create a computer model. The development of inhibitors that are designed to overcome the effects of this mutation could not be based on the accurate structure of a ligand-binding site here, ligand-based design would be appropriate (see Sect. 7.9). 

All ligand-based molecular modeling studies focusing on agents able to bind the colchicine site were performed before the determination of the X-ray structure of the tubulin-colchicine complex (see below). Computational tools in this field were mainly used to derive three-dimensional QS ARs (through comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and other original approaches), but CSI also constituted useful... 

---