Distinguishing between bioactive and modeled compound conformations through mining of emerging chemical patterns

To systematically compare bioactive and theoretically derived compound conformations, we have analyzed 18 different sets of active small molecules with experimentally determined binding conformations and modeled conformers using a pattern recognition approach. Compound class-specific descriptor value range patterns that accurately distinguish bioactive conformations from other low-energy conformers were identified for all 18 compound classes. Discriminatory patterns were often chemically intuitive and could be well rationalized on the basis of X-ray structures of the protein-ligand complexes. Target-specific descriptor patterns can be used as filters to screen conformational ensembles for bioactive conformations.