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Updated: Sep 19, 2025

Incorporating Target Protein Structure Flexibility and Dynamics in Computational Drug Discovery Using Ensemble-Based Docking Analysis
Published on: June 20, 2025
Molecular dynamics-driven drug discovery
Dengjie Yan1, Yue Ma1, Xiang Chen1
1Key Laboratory of Drug-Targeting and Drug Delivery System of the Education Ministry and Sichuan Province, Sichuan Engineering Laboratory for Plant-Sourced Drug and Sichuan Research Center for Drug Precision Industrial Technology, West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China. qwang@scu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is an important tool and has a wide range of applications in many scientific fields, including drug discovery. Herein, focusing on drug discovery, the early compound discovery stage in particular, we discuss some of the recent applications of MD simulation in four key aspects, i.e., target modelling, binding pose prediction, virtual screening and lead optimisation. Current challenges faced by MD simulation in drug discovery and future perspectives are also discussed and summarised, along with a concise discussion about the possible approaches, including force field, sampling and incorporation of artificial intelligence, to improve the accuracy and speed of the MD simulation.
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