Abstracto

Fragment-based Drug Design (FBDD)

Dr. Alika Farhan

Fragment-based drug design (FBDD) is a powerful approach used in drug discovery and development to identify and optimize small, fragment-sized molecules into potent and selective drug candidates. It has gained significant attention and popularity in the pharmaceutical industry due to its ability to overcome some of the challenges associated with traditional high-throughput screening (HTS) methods. In traditional HTS, large libraries of diverse compounds are screened against a biological target to identify hits that bind and modulate the target’s activity. While HTS has been successful in identifying lead compounds, it often faces limitations such as compound promiscuity, poor selectivity, and the need for extensive synthetic modifications to optimize the hits into drug candidates. Fragment-based drug design, on the other hand, offers a more rational and efficient approach to lead discovery and optimization. Fragment-based drug design (FBDD) is a powerful strategy used in the development of new pharmaceutical compounds. This approach involves the identification and optimization of small, low molecular weight fragments that bind to a specific target protein or receptor, followed by their assembly into larger compounds with improved potency and selectivity. FBDD offers several advantages over traditional drug discovery methods, including the ability to explore a larger chemical space, the potential for rapid lead discovery, and the ability to target protein-protein interactions. In this review, we discuss the principles and techniques of FBDD, highlight its successful applications in drug discovery, and provide an overview of the challenges and future prospects of this approach.