Low cost prediction of relative stabilities of hydrogen bonded complexes from atomic multipole moments for overly short intermolecular distances.

The relative stability of biologically relevant, hydrogen bonded complexes with shortened distances can be assessed at low cost by the electrostatic multipole term alone more successfully than by ab initio methods. These results imply that atomic multipole moments may help improve ligand-receptor ranking predictions, particularly in cases where accurate structural data are not available.