Development of a Graphical User Interface Application to Identify Marginal and Potent Ligands for Estrogen Receptor Alpha

Abstract

Employing ensemble Protein-Ligand Interaction Fingerprints (ensPLIF) as descriptors in post retrospective Structure-Based Virtual Screening (SBVS) campaigns Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) analysis has been proven to significantly increase the predictive ability in the identification of potent ligands for estrogen receptor alpha (ERα). In the research presented in this article, similar approaches have been performed to construct and retrospectively validate an SBVS protocol to identify marginal ligands for ERα. Based on both validated SBVS protocols, a graphical-user-interface (GUI) application to identify if a compound is a non-, moderate or potent ligand for ERα was developed. The GUI application was subsequently used to virtually screen genistin, genistein, daidzin, and daidzein, followed by in vitro test employing a cytotoxic assay using 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) method.

Keywords

• Ensemble Protein-Ligand Interaction Fingerprints (ensPLIF)
• Structure-Based Virtual Screening (SBVS)
• estrogen receptor alpha (ERα)
• graphical-user-interface (GUI)