Ligand efficiency and lead optimization

Pharmacological activity and druggability are two pivotal factors in drug innovation, which are respectively determined by the microscopic structure and macroscopic property of a molecule. Since structural optimization consists in a molecular operation in the space with multi-dimensions, and there exists a body of uncertainties for transduction from in vitro activity into in vivo pharmacological response. It is necessary for early stage in lead optimization to evaluate compound quality or efficiency using a kind of metrics containing multi-parameters. On the basis of the describing parameters of activity and druggability, this overview deals with the roles of thermodynamic signatures and binding kinetics of drug-receptor interactions in optimizing quality of compounds, signifying the significance in optimization of microscopic structures for drug discovery.