ELECTROSTATICS IN COMPUTER-AIDED DRUG DESIGN

Abstract

Hydrogen bonds and charge-charge interactions, determined by molecular electrostatics, play essential role in biopolymer-ligand associations. Accordingly, electrostatics is crucial in the qualitative and quantitative characterisation of the binding of drugs to their target molecules. In the following, we will give an account on the role of molecular electrostatics in a drug design, laying emphasis on our own work. We will survey the most important computation methods of molecular electrostatic potentials, then outline basic aspects of molecular recognition: steric, electrostatic and hydrophobic complementarity. On the basis of the complementarity, we will also define molecular similarity and discuss various applications of these concepts to the treatment of protein-ligand interactions and a rational drug design. Special attention will be paid to a receptor mapping and to a comparative molecular field analysis, with some our recent applications. A further important point will be the molecular electrostatic field (potential gradient) as a hydrophobicity measure. We will argue that the hydrophobic complementarity and similarity can be treated on the basis of matching regions of the interacting molecules that are characterised by a similar magnitude of the electrostatic field. The concept of the electrostatic complementarity will be extended to enzyme-substrate interactions, providing a firm basis for the quantitative estimation of catalytic rate enhancement.