An Overview of Computational Approaches in Structure Based Drug Design

Abstract

Drug design is a costly and difficult process. Drug must fulfill several criteria of being active, nontoxic and bioavailable. The conventional way of synthesizing drugs is a monotonous process. But computer aided drug design is a proficient way to overcome the tedious process of conventional method. Drugs can be designed computationally by structure or target based drug designing (SBDD). This review summarizes the methods of structure based drug design, usage of related softwares and a case study that explores to find a suitable drug (lead) molecule for the mutated state of H-Ras protein in order to prevent complex formation with Raf protein.Keywords: computer aided drug design; structure based drug design; Ras-proteinDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/njb.v2i1.5680Nepal Journal of Biotechnology Jan.2012, Vol.2(1): 53-61