InterLig: improved ligand-based virtual screening using topologically independent structural alignments

MOTIVATION: In the past few years, drug discovery processes have been relying more and more on computational methods to sift out the most promising molecules before time and resources are spent to test them in experimental settings. Whenever the protein target of a given disease is not known, it becomes fundamental to have accurate methods for ligand-based Virtual Screening, which compare known active molecules against vast libraries of candidate compounds. Recently, 3D-based similarity methods have been developed that are capable of scaffold-hopping and to superimpose matching molecules. RESULTS: Here, we present InterLig, a new method for the comparison and superposition of small molecules using topologically-independent alignments of atoms. We test InterLig on a standard benchmark and show that it compares favorably to the best currently available 3D methods. AVAILABILITY: The program is available from: http://wallnerlab.org/InterLig. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.