Function and structure-based screening of compounds, peptides and proteins to identify drug candidates

Drug discovery in simple words is all about finding small molecular compounds that possess the potential to interact with specific bio-macromolecules, mainly proteins, thereby bringing a desired effect in the functioning of the target molecules. Virtual screening of large compound libraries using computational approaches has come up as a great alternative to cost and labor-intensive high-throughput screening carried out in laboratories. Virtual high-throughput screening enormously reduces the number of compounds for systematic analysis using biochemical assays before entering the clinical trials. Here, we first give a brief overview of the rationale behind virtual screening, types of virtual screening - structure-based, ligand-based and inverse virtual screening, and challenges that need to be addressed to improve the existing strategies. Subsequently, we describe the methodology adopted for virtual screening of small molecules, peptides and proteins. Finally, we use few case studies to provide a better insight to the application of computer-aided high-throughput screening.