Inverse-QSPR for de novo Design: A Review

The use of computer tools to solve chemistry-related problems has given rise to a large and increasing number of publications these last decades. This new field of science is now well recognized and labelled Chemoinformatics. Among all chemoinformatics techniques, the use of statistical based approaches for property predictions has been the subject of numerous research reflecting both new developments and many cases of applications. The so obtained predictive models relating a property to molecular features - descriptors - are gathered under the acronym QSPR, for Quantitative Structure Property Relationships. Apart from the obvious use of such models to predict property values for new compounds, their use to virtually synthesize new molecules - de novo design - is currently a high-interest subject. Inverse-QSPR (i-QSPR) methods have hence been developed to accelerate the discovery of new materials that meet a set of specifications. In the proposed manuscript, we review existing i-QSPR methodologies published in the open literature in a way to highlight developments, applications, improvements and limitations of each.