Summary of answers to QSAR question



 Dear CCL'ers,
    Following is a summary of the replies I received to my question about
 how
 long it should take to perform a QSAR analysis of 120 compounds. First
 is
 the original question and then come the answers. Thanks very much to all
 who replied.
 Dear CCL'ers'
    I am about to start doing some QSAR on a set of 120 compounds. How
 long should I expect it to take to overlay all 120 compounds and adjust
 their
 conformations, to achieve maximal overlap? A range of times or an
 approximate number of hours will make a fine answer. Thanks alot.
                                     Susan
 gee, wouldn't that depend on what software and methods
 you're using?
 
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 It depends on a lot of things.  If these are near analogs, where a
 common
 scaffold has the same numbering, a Sybyl spl (there is one called align,
 or at
 least I have one) will do a rough atom-to-atom alignment in a matter of
 a minute
 or so.  If the structures are dissimilar, a manual use (in Sybyl) of the
 orient
 command will give you a very rough alignment in probably 30 or 40
 minutes,
 depending on how good you are with the keyboard.  If you want to do
 something
 fancy, like alignments based on similarity of the ESP. . .this gets to
 be time
 consuming.  If you are also taking into account multiple conformations,
 or
 tweaking the alignment given a first-pass CoMFA-QSAR. . .you just have
 to try
 it.
 I infer from your address (prius.jnj) that you are with Johnson and
 Johnson.
 Debbie Loughney (sp?) is well versed in Sybyl.  Have you discussed this
 with
 her?
 Viel Vergnuegung!
 Steve Bowlus
 Hi there,
 It depends on the machine power, qsar software, compound size, parameter
 selecting .....Generally, as I am doing now for about 100 compounds(MW.
 300) using a PowerMac8100 with CAChe Project leader, one month or 500
 hrs
 around is the common expense. Maybe I am lazy.
 Any QSAR topic I am interesting in.
 Yours,
 Canping Pan
 ---------------------------------
 E-mail: pan_canp "-at-" agr.kyushu-u.ac.jp
 Tel: 092-611-7122(H)
        092-642-2858(O)
 Fax: 092-642-2864
 http://133.5.200.42/pan.html
 Hi Susan,
 I am afraid your question is impossible to answer considering the
 background information you supplied. None.
 First you need a very well planned working strategy.
 Do you now anything about the target protein. That is, do you now
 anything about the ligand-target protein interactions?
 How flexible are your compounds? You need to perform conformational
 analyses on most of them.
 You must align low energy conformations from all compounds. This is
 the most crucial step in order to obtain a reliable 3D QSAR model.
 Having all compounds aligned the most time consuming part is over and
 the real fun begins.
 Cheers
 /jonas
 My company offers two products that you may find VERY useful.  The first
 is
 AMPAC, a semiempirical quantum mechanical package along with an easy to
 use
 graphical user interface.  The second is CODESSA, and advanced QSAR/QSPR
 program that does much of what you are currently doing manually
 automatically
 when paired with AMPAC.  There are a number of reference papers in the
 literature describing the sorts of correlations that are possible, and
 one of
 them (#1 below) sounds somewhat like what you want to do.  If you are
 interested and will send me your regular mail address, I'll be happy to
 send
 some propaganda in the way of brochures along.  Also, perhaps we can
 arrange a
 demo if you think that you might be further intrigued.  Let me know.
 Best regards, Andy Holder
 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
                     DR. ANDREW HOLDER
                          President
 Semichem, Inc.            ||  Internet Addr: aholder "-at-" cctr.umkc.edu
 7128 Summit               ||  Phone Number:  (913) 268-3271
 Shawnee, KS,  66216       ||  FAX Number:    (913) 268-3445
 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Dear CCL'ers,
   You have all rightly pointed out that I did not provide sufficient
 background
 information for an answer to my question. I will provide it now (I
 hope):
    I am doing everything manually, from the overlays to the
 conformational
 searches. The compounds I am aligning fall into about half a dozen
 structural categories (by my reckoning), within which there is not great
 structural variation but among which there is little similarity. There
 are
 large flat fused ring structures and spiro compounds, single phenyl
 rings
 with long aliphatic chains on either side (in some cases branched, in
 others, not) and pairs and larger sets of phenyl and non-aromatic rings
 connected by
 aliphatic chains and other moieties.
    I hope this clarifies the earlier question somewhat. Thanks for your
 replies,
 both future and those already sent.
                                               Susan
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 Dear Susan,
 Please, post a summary with your answers. Which software are you using
 to do the QSAR study?
 Thanks,
 Ezequiel
 If you know the corresponding points then this is pretty easy. The
 cheapest way is to do ensemble distance geometry. I would use the most
 constrained analogue of each class. Generate 100 ensembles with that
 contain the chosen member of each class. Minimize the structures. Then
 see which ensembles (1) still match & how well and (2) contain mainly
 low energy conformations. You will discover either that you have only
 a few solutions (good) or 50 or so different solutions which will tell
 you that you will never have a unique choice of conformations so you
 might as well just pick one set and move on. Ensemble distance geometry
 is available in DGEOM from QCPE.
 Sheridan, R. P.; Nilakantan, R.; Dixon, J. S.; Venkataraghavan, R.,  J.
 Med. Chem. 1986, 29, 899-906. "The Ensemble Approach to Distance
 Geometry:  Application to the Nicotinic Pharmacophore".
 If you don't know what atoms correspond in the different structures,
 you can run a bunch of DGEOM runs to see which give solutions. Or,
 you can use DISCO, an option with Sybyl.
 Martin, Y. C.; Bures, M. G.; Danaher, E. A.; DeLazzer, J.; Lico, I.;
 Pavlik, P. A.,  J. Comput.-Aided Mol. Design 1993, 7, 83-102. "A Fast
 New Approach to Pharmacophore Mapping and its Application to
 Dopaminergic and Benzodiazepine Agonists".
 It shouldn't take you a month to do what you want, except that you are
 apparently learning in the process with no good tutor. How do you plan
 to do the QSAR?
 Yvonne Martin, Senior Project Leader
 Computer Assisted Molecular Design Project
 D-47E, AP10 2fl
 Abbott Laboratories
 100 Abbott Park Road
 Abbott Park, IL 60064-3500
 Phone: 847 937-5362
 FAX: 847 937-2625
 yvonne.c.martin "-at-" abbott.com
 Susan,
 For the situation you have described, I highly recommend SEAL, an
 automatic
 alignment program, available from QCPE for a  small fee.  Forget manual
 alignments - it will take forever!  With SEAL, you can align all 120 of
 your
 molecules (even if you have ~20 conformations of each) in <= a few
 hours.
 Good luck.
 Mary
 /***************************
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 * Senior Research Scientist*
 * Rhone-Poulenc Ag Company *
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 ***************************/
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 Mary Bradley                      *
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 ***********************************
 Dear Suzan
 I don't know what you mean by hand... Could you tell me what are the
 modelling softwares available in you lab ?
 I see two problems to face : Conformer generation (it seems that you
 have very flexible compounds) and conformer fitting.
 I would suggest you to start with the more rigid compounds, do a
 conformational search (systematic, random, high temperature dynamic as
 you want or as you can). Keep structures in a range of 10-20 kCal above
 the minima (don't forget to investigate ring conformation).
 Then make hypothesis on what would be the pharmacophore (charged atom,
 hydrogen donnors or acceptors, aromatics, lipophilic groups etc...) or
 any common points available in your series or reported in literature.
 Then measure some key distances between these elements and try to
 cluster the molecules according to these parameters (with SAS) or make
 some sorts with excel to identify the common pharmacophore if you don't
 have any specific softwares to do that.
 Once you have identified the best clusters then you can superimpose the
 best conformations.
 Concerning the more flexible molecules, don't spend time to generate
 conformers but simply check that you can simply superimpose one
 reasonable conformation to the previously identified pharmacophore.
 To my opinion, and without any additional information, you have to plan
 some months to do the job.
 Hope this helps
 Don't hesitate to contact me for help
 Francois
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 --
 Dr. Francois CROIZET - Riom Laboratoires CERM - Chemistry Dept. (CMC) -
 ZI de la Varenne, Rue H. Goudier, BP 140 - 63203 RIOM Cedex - FRANCE -
 Phone: (33) 473 33 49 70 - Fax: (33) 473 33 49 97
 E-mail: f.croizet "-at-" organon.akzonobel.nl
 ========================================================================
 ==
 For automated overlay of two molecule with conformational flexibility on
 PC, PowerFit may be useful. You can go to our web site to download a
 fully functional program to evaluate. Currently only Windows 95 and NT
 version is available for download.
 For automated overlay of two molecule with conformational flexibility on
 PC, PowerFit may be useful. You can go to our web site to download a
 fully functional program to evaluate. Currently only Windows 95 and NT
 version is available for download.
 Ms. (Dr.?) Miller:
 For the past few days, I have been following with interest
 your postings to the CCL concerning QSAR.  (BTW, I haven't
 seen (most of) the responses to you show up in my mail, so I'm
 assuming they're going directly to you.)  Since I do molecular
 modeling and algorithm design, I haven't felt competent to
 comment on your questions.  After your last posting, however,
 I feel compelled to register extreme surprise (and to stick
 my nose in where it doesn't belong :-).
 Why, pray tell, would your mentor even suggest doing _all_
 of the overlays by hand???  There is certainly value to
 doing a small, random set of overlays by hand, just to
 confirm that the results make sense.  However, if you're
 needing to do anything more than a couple of handfuls of
 compounds, noninteractive fitting seems the only way to
 go.  Otherwise, you end up wasting enormous amounts of
 human time doing things a mindless computer was invented
 for.  On the other hand, if you're using Tripos software,
 I guess noninteractive isn't really a choice anyways?
 Ah well, good luck with your project.  I hope you're able
 to finish in something approximating a reasonable amount
 of time.
 Sorry for butting into the middle of your more substantive
 discussion with people who actually do QSAR...
 Marti Head
 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 Martha S. Head, Ph.D. (Marti)
 Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology
 9600 Gudelsky Drive
 Rockville MD 20850
 voice: (301)738-6104
 email: mhead "-at-" indigo18.carb.nist.gov
 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 Hi all,
   Thanks again for all of your responses. I will post a summary in a
 couple
 of days when the discussion is over. All of the responses I've received
 so
 far have come to CCL and not to my personal mailbox, but if it is
 desired,
 I can still post a compilation of the responses.
   I forgot to mention 2 very important facts:
    1) I am using SYBYL and have no access to anything else, save the
        free software on the net. I cannot use that however, for the
 second
        reason.
    2) My mentor insists that I do the overlays by hand, that is, by
 using
        the fit module in SYBYL and picking points, with the mouse, to
 fit.
        I must also do torsion adjustments by hand, that is, by choosing
        a torsion angle for each bond and applying it, using either the
 twist
        widget in the upper left corner of the screen or the modify
 torsion
        command.
                                            Susan
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 Susan,
 The superimposition procedure is performed due to that the 3D
 structure of the target protein is not known. You seek atoms or
 mutual points on your ligands that are most likely to interact with
 target protein. However, very often your fits will be much better if
 you also allow extension vectors to act as a fit point. For example,
 a basic nitrogen may interact through its lone pair of electrons or,
 if it is protonated, through the proton. Therefore, if you apply
 extension vectors in the direction of the lone pair of electrons
 , and use this vector as a fit point, much more reliable fits will
 occur. You use a UNIX machine and I suggest that you use Apollo or a
 similar program for this. Even SYBYL has a module.
 Your mentor does not allow you to perform conformational searches on
 your ligands? Then why bother at all. This is, one of the most
 crucial steps in 3D QSAR, especially if your ligands are flexible.
 In SYBYL I suggest you to use the random search procedure!
 The conformational search and the alignment proecedures are tedious
 and cost a lot of time, but must be performed rationally and
 thoroughly.
 Succes
 /jonas
 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 Jonas Nilsson                e-mail: j.nilsson "-at-" farm.rug.nl
 Univ. Centre for Pharmacy       tel: +31(0)503633302
 Dept. of Med. Chemistry         fax: +31(0)503636908
 Antonius Deusinglaan 1
 NL-9713 AV Groningen
 The Netherlands
 http://pc131.farm.rug.nl/main.htm
 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 (In reply to your message dated Tuesday 11, March 1997)
 --
 Something of interest for QSAR work.
 Accord for Excel can be used for structure relationships and Activities.
 Check out
 WWW.synopsys.co.uk
    Take care, all.
                                          Susan