SARANEA: a freely available program to mine structure-activity and structure-selectivity relationship information in compound data sets.

We introduce SARANEA, an open-source Java application for interactive exploration of structure-activity relationship (SAR) and structure-selectivity relationship (SSR) information in compound sets of any source. SARANEA integrates various SAR and SSR analysis functions and utilizes a network-like similarity graph data structure for visualization. The program enables the systematic detection of activity and selectivity cliffs and corresponding key compounds across multiple targets. Advanced SAR analysis functions implemented in SARANEA include, among others, layered chemical neighborhood graphs, cliff indices, selectivity trees, editing functions for molecular networks and pathways, bioactivity summaries of key compounds, and markers for bioactive compounds having potential side effects. We report the application of SARANEA to identify SAR and SSR determinants in different sets of serine protease inhibitors. It is found that key compounds can influence SARs and SSRs in rather different ways. Such compounds and their SAR/SSR characteristics can be systematically identified and explored using SARANEA. The program and source code are made freely available under the GNU General Public License.