Development of anti-viral agents using molecular modeling and virtual screening techniques.

Computational chemistry has always played a key role in anti-viral drug development. The challenges and the quickly rising public interest when a virus is becoming a threat has significantly influenced computational drug discovery. The most obvious example is anti-AIDS research, where HIV protease and reverse transcriptase have triggered enormous efforts in developing and improving computational methods.

Discovery of novel CB2 receptor ligands by a pharmacophore-based virtual screening workflow.

Cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB(2) receptor) ligands are potential candidates for the therapy of chronic pain, inflammatory disorders, atherosclerosis, and osteoporosis. We describe the development of pharmacophore models for CB(2) receptor ligands, as well as a pharmacophore-based virtual screening workflow, which resulted in 14 hits for experimental follow-up. Seven compounds were identified with K(i) values below 25 microM.