Docking-Based Virtual Screening: Recent Developments

Tiziano      Tuccinardi

Abstract

Virtual (database) screening (VS) of molecules promises to accelerate the discovery of new drugs and reduce costs by identifying molecules with high probabilities of binding to a target receptor. The large amount of available protein X-ray crystal structures, together with the development of more effective homology modelling techniques, has led recently to a steep increase in docking-based VS studies. This approach needs computational fitting of molecules into a receptor active site using advanced algorithms, followed by the scoring and ranking of these molecules to identify potential leads. In this review, the main published docking-based VS studies developed over the last eight years are investigated, and details are provided about the software used, the results achieved and the novel methods employed.

Keywords: Docking, virtual screening

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