Discovery of estrogen receptor modulators: a review of virtual screening and SAR efforts.

IMPORTANCE OF THE FIELD: Virtual screening (VS) coupled with structural biology is a significantly important approach to increase the number and enhance the success of projects in lead identification stage of drug discovery process. Recent advances and future directions in estrogen therapy have resulted in great demand for identifying the potential estrogen receptor (ER) modulators with more activity and selectivity. AREAS COVERED IN THIS REVIEW: This review presents the current state of the art in VS and structure-activity relationship of ER modulators in recent discovery, and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the technology. WHAT THE READER WILL GAIN: Readers will gain an overview of the current platforms of in silico screening for discovery of ER modulators; they will learn which structural information is significantly correlated with the bioactivity of ER modulators and what novel strategies should be considered for the creation of more effective chemical structures. TAKE HOME MESSAGE: With the goal of reducing toxicity and/or improving efficacy, challenges to the successful modeling of endocrine agents are proposed, providing new paradigms for the design of ER inhibitors.