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RNA Therapeutics pp 47–77Cite as

Structure-Based Discovery of Small Molecules Binding to RNA

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Part of the book series: Topics in Medicinal Chemistry ((TMC,volume 27))

Abstract

Ribonucleic acids (RNAs) constitute attractive drug targets. The wealth of structural information about RNAs is steadily increasing making it possible to use this information for the design of new ligands. Two methods that make heavy use of structural knowledge for ligand discovery are molecular docking and fragment screening. In molecular docking the structure of the binding site is used as a template for the design of new ligands using computational methods whereas in fragment screening biophysical methods are used for the detection of weak binding ligands which are subsequently elaborated into tighter binding molecules. In this chapter, we give an overview of both methods in the context of ligand discovery for RNA targets and illustrate their applications for hit discovery.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for internal university research funding from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Institute for Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Staudinger Weg 5, 55128, Mainz, Germany

    Thomas Wehler

  2. Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen, Jonas Lies vei 91, 5020, Bergen, Norway

    Ruth Brenk

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  1. Thomas Wehler
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  2. Ruth Brenk
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Correspondence to Ruth Brenk .

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  1. Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

    Amanda L. Garner

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Wehler, T., Brenk, R. (2017). Structure-Based Discovery of Small Molecules Binding to RNA. In: Garner, A. (eds) RNA Therapeutics. Topics in Medicinal Chemistry, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/7355_2016_29

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