An Analysis upon Historical Perspective and Development of QSAR Modeling: A Practical Overview

Advances in QSAR Modeling: Bridging the Gap between Chemistry and Biology

Abstract

Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) modeling pertains to the construction of predictive models of biological activities as a function of structural and molecular information of a compound library. The concept of QSAR has typically been used for drug discovery and development and has gained wide applicability for correlating molecular information with not only biological activities but also with other physicochemical properties, which has therefore been termed quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR). Typical molecular parameters that are used to account for electronic properties, hydrophobicity, steric effects, and topology can be determined empirically through experimentation or theoretically via computational chemistry. A given compilation of data sets is then subjected to data pre-processing and data modeling through the use of statistical andor machine learning techniques. QSAR enables the investigator to establishes a reliable quantitative relationship between structure and activity which will be used to derive an insilico model to predict the activity of novel molecules prior to their synthesis. The past few decades have witnessed much advances in the development of computational models for the prediction of a wide span of biological and chemical activities that are beneficial for screening promising compounds with robust properties. This review covers the concept, history of QSAR and also the components involved in the development of QSAR models.