Automatic superposition of drug molecules based on their common receptor site.

We have previously developed a new rational method for superposing molecules in terms of submolecular physical and chemical properties, but not in terms of atom positions or chemical structures as has been done in the conventional methods. The program was originally developed for interactive use on a three-dimensional graphic display, providing goodness-of-fit indices on molecular shape, hydrogen bonds, electrostatic interactions and others. Here, we report a new unbiased searching method for the best superposition of molecules, covering all the superposing modes and conformational freedom, as an additional function of the program. The function is based on a novel least-squares method which superposes the expected positions and orientations of hydrogen bonding partners in the receptor that are deduced from both molecules. The method not only gives reliability and reproducibility to the result of the superposition, but also allows us to save labor and time. It is demonstrated that this method is very efficient for finding the correct superposing mode in such systems where hydrogen bonds play important roles.