Charting a Path to Success in Virtual Screening

Docking is commonly applied to drug design efforts, especially high-throughput virtual screenings of small molecules, to identify new compounds that bind to a given target. Despite great advances and successful applications in recent years, a number of issues remain unsolved. Most of the challenges...

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Main Author: Stefano Forli
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2015-10-01
Series:Molecules
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/20/10/18732
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author Stefano Forli
author_facet Stefano Forli
author_sort Stefano Forli
collection DOAJ
description Docking is commonly applied to drug design efforts, especially high-throughput virtual screenings of small molecules, to identify new compounds that bind to a given target. Despite great advances and successful applications in recent years, a number of issues remain unsolved. Most of the challenges and problems faced when running docking experiments are independent of the specific software used, and can be ascribed to either improper input preparation or to the simplified approaches applied to achieve high-throughput speed. Being aware of approximations and limitations of such methods is essential to prevent errors, deal with misleading results, and increase the success rate of virtual screening campaigns. In this review, best practices and most common issues of docking and virtual screening will be discussed, covering the journey from the design of the virtual experiment to the hit identification.
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spelling doaj.art-edfbb9124f5b46d5b433fef5cf9b49f72022-12-22T02:44:49ZengMDPI AGMolecules1420-30492015-10-012010187321875810.3390/molecules201018732molecules201018732Charting a Path to Success in Virtual ScreeningStefano Forli0Molecular Graphics Laboratory, Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USADocking is commonly applied to drug design efforts, especially high-throughput virtual screenings of small molecules, to identify new compounds that bind to a given target. Despite great advances and successful applications in recent years, a number of issues remain unsolved. Most of the challenges and problems faced when running docking experiments are independent of the specific software used, and can be ascribed to either improper input preparation or to the simplified approaches applied to achieve high-throughput speed. Being aware of approximations and limitations of such methods is essential to prevent errors, deal with misleading results, and increase the success rate of virtual screening campaigns. In this review, best practices and most common issues of docking and virtual screening will be discussed, covering the journey from the design of the virtual experiment to the hit identification.http://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/20/10/18732dockingdrug designmolecular modelingvirtual screening
spellingShingle Stefano Forli
Charting a Path to Success in Virtual Screening
Molecules
docking
drug design
molecular modeling
virtual screening
title Charting a Path to Success in Virtual Screening
title_full Charting a Path to Success in Virtual Screening
title_fullStr Charting a Path to Success in Virtual Screening
title_full_unstemmed Charting a Path to Success in Virtual Screening
title_short Charting a Path to Success in Virtual Screening
title_sort charting a path to success in virtual screening
topic docking
drug design
molecular modeling
virtual screening
url http://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/20/10/18732
work_keys_str_mv AT stefanoforli chartingapathtosuccessinvirtualscreening