Quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) represent predictive models derived from the application of statistical tools correlating biological activity or other properties of chemicals with descriptors representative of molecular structure and/or property. Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships in Drug Design, Predictive Toxicology, and Risk Assessment discusses recent advancements in the field of QSARs with special reference to their application in drug development, predictive toxicology, and chemical risk analysis. Focusing on emerging research in the field, this book is an ideal reference source for industry professionals, students, and academicians in the fields of medicinal chemistry and toxicology.

This book brings together drug design practitioners, all leaders in their field, who are actively advancing the field of quantitative methods to guide drug discovery, from structure-based design to empirical statistical models - from rule-based approaches to toxicology to the fields of bioinformatics and systems biology. The aim of the book is to show how various facets of the drug discovery process can be addressed in a quantitative fashion (ie: numerical analysis to enable robust predictions to be made). Each chapter includes a brief review of the topic showing the historical development of quantitative approaches, a survey/summary of the current state-of-the-art, a selection of well chosen examples with some worked through and an appreciation of what problems remain to be overcome as well as an indication of how the field may develop. After an overview of quantitative approaches to drug design the book describes the development of concepts of "drug-like properties", of quantitative structure-activity relationships and molecular modelling, and in particular, structure-based design approaches to guide lead optimisation. How to manage and describe chemical structures, underpins all quantitative approaches to drug design and these are described in the following chapters. The next chapter covers the value of a quantitative approach, and also the challenge which is to describe the confidence in any prediction, and methods to assess predictive model quality. The later chapters describe the application of quantitative approaches to describing and optimising potency, selectivity, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic properties and toxicology, and the design of chemical libraries to feed the screening approaches to lead generation that underpin modern drug discovery. Finally the book describes the impact of bioinformatics, current status of predicting ligand affinity direct from the protein structure, and the application of quantitative approaches to predicting environmental risk. The book provides a summary of the current state-of-the-art in quantitative approaches to drug design, and future opportunities, but it also provides inspiration to drug design practitioners to apply careful design, to make best use of the quantitative methods that are available, while continuing to improve them. Drug discovery still relies heavily on random screening and empirical screening cascades to identify leads and drugs and the process has many failures to deliver only a small handful of drugs. With the rapidly escalating costs of drug discovery and development together with spiralling delivery, quantitative approaches hold the promise of shifting the balance of success, to enable drug discovery to maintain its economic viability.

Understanding the Basics of QSAR for Applications in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Risk Assessment describes the historical evolution of quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) approaches and their fundamental principles. This book includes clear, introductory coverage of the statistical methods applied in QSAR and new QSAR techniques, such as HQSAR and G-QSAR. Containing real-world examples that illustrate important methodologies, this book identifies QSAR as a valuable tool for many different applications, including drug discovery, predictive toxicology and risk assessment. Written in a straightforward and engaging manner, this is the ideal resource for all those looking for general and practical knowledge of QSAR methods. Includes numerous practical examples related to QSAR methods and applications Follows the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development principles for QSAR model development Discusses related techniques such as structure-based design and the combination of structure- and ligand-based design tools

This volume focuses on computational modeling of the ecotoxicity of chemicals and presents applications of quantitative structure–activity relationship models (QSARs) in the predictive toxicology field in a regulatory context. The extensive book covers a variety of protocols for descriptor computation, data curation, feature selection, learning algorithms, validation of models, applicability domain assessment, confidence estimation for predictions, and much more, as well as case studies and literature reviews on a number of hot topics. Written for the Methods in Pharmacology and Toxicology series, chapters include the kind of practical advice that is essential for researchers everywhere. Authoritative and comprehensive, Ecotoxicological QSARs is an ideal source to update readers in the field with current practices and introduce to them new developments and should therefore be very useful for researchers in academia, industries, and regulatory bodies.

Since the publication of the first edition, the field has changed dramatically. Scientists can now explicitly consider 3D features in quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) studies and often have the 3D structure of the macromolecular target to guide the 3D QSAR. Improvements in computer hardware and software have also made the methods

Progress in medicinal chemistry and in drug design depends on our ability to understand the interactions of drugs with their biological targets. Classical QSAR studies describe biological activity in terms of physicochemical properties of substituents in certain positions of the drug molecules. The purpose of this book is twofold: On the one hand, both the novice and the experienced user will be introduced to the theory and application of 3D QSAR analyses, and on the other, a comprehensive overview of the scope and limitations of these methods is given. The detailed discussion of the present state of the art should enable scientists to further develop and improve these powerful new tools. The greater part of the book is dedicated to the theoretical background of 3D QSAR and to a discussion of CoMFA applications. In addition, various other 3D QSAR approaches and some CoMFA-related methods are described in detail. Thus, the book should be valuable for medicinal, agricultural and theoretical chemists, biochemists and biologists, as well as for other scientists interested in drug design. Its content, starting at a very elementary level and proceeding to the latest methodological results, the strengths and limitations of 3D QSAR approaches, makes the book also appropriate as a text for teaching and for graduate student courses.

Experiencing rapid growth over the last 15 years, quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) continue to evolve quickly with an explosion of new tools and techniques. These techniques now play an increasing role in drug design and chemical risk assessment. New molecular descriptors based on three-dimensional structures incorporate a range of classical approaches, including regression and PLS analysis, as well as new nonlinear approaches, such as neural networks and support vector machines. Three-Dimensional QSAR addresses the scope and limitations of different modeling techniques using case studies from pharmacology, toxicology, and ecotoxicology to demonstrate the utility of each technique--Provided by publisher.