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Course, academic year 2025/2026
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Basics of Molecular Modelling of Drugs - GAF316
Title: Basics of Molecular Modelling of Drugs
Guaranteed by: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Analysis (16-16190)
Faculty: Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové
Actual: from 2025
Semester: winter
Points: 0
E-Credits: 3
Examination process: winter s.:written
Hours per week, examination: winter s.:14/14, C+Ex [HS]
Capacity: 30 / 30 (unknown)
Min. number of students: unlimited
4EU+: no
Virtual mobility / capacity: no
Key competences:  
State of the course: taught
Language: English
Teaching methods: full-time
Level:  
Note: deregister from the exam date if a requisite was not fulfilled
course can be enrolled in outside the study plan
enabled for web enrollment
Guarantor: doc. PharmDr. Jan Zitko, Ph.D.
Co-requisite : GAF342
Is incompatible with: GF362
Is interchangeable with: GF362
In complex pre-requisite: GAF1002
Annotation -
The aim of the course is to acquaint students with basic methods of Computer Aided Drug Design (CADD). CADD methods are routinely used in rational design of new biologically active compounds (drugs). Students will learn basic theoretical principles of modelling of small molecules (drugs), biological structures (receptors) and their interactions. Emphasis will be placed on the practical application of these methods, which will be practiced in seminars. The principle outcome of the course is to learn CADD methods and understand their principles and utilization. Absolvents of the course, are supposed to be able to design and perform a simple CADD project on their own. Themes: Drug targets, Structure of proteins, Information systems and databases, In silico prediction of physicochemical properties, Drug-receptor interactions, Experimental methods to study drug-receptor interactions, Rational design and development of drugs with known receptor (structure-based drug design), Molecular docking. Molecular dynamics, Rational design and development of drugs with unknown receptor (ligand-based drug design), Analysis of Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships (QSAR), Pharmacophore models, Case studies.
Last update: Zitko Jan, doc. PharmDr., Ph.D. (25.09.2025)
Course completion requirements -

Requirements to obtain the credits: Active participation in all seminars (absence is allowed only for serious reasons and will be solved individually), sufficient outcomes of the tasks solved in the seminars, sufficient outcomes of the final project solved in the last seminar. Successful completion of the exam equals to sufficient scoring in the written exam test.

Last update: Zitko Jan, doc. PharmDr., Ph.D. (25.09.2025)
Literature -

Recommended:

  • Young, D. C.. Computational Drug Design: A Guide for Computational and Medicinal Chemists. : WILEY-VCH, 2009, 344 s. ISBN 978-0-470-12685-1.
  • Brown, Nathan. In silico medicinal chemistry : computational methods to support drug design. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry, 2016, 220 s. ISBN 978-1-78262-163-8.

Optional:

  • Davis, Andrew Ward, Simon E. (eds.). The handbook of medicinal chemistry : principles and practice. Cambridge, UK: Royal Society of Chemistry, 2015, 753 s. ISBN 978-1-84973-625-1.

Last update: prepocet_literatura.php (14.08.2025)
Teaching methods -

Teaching through lectures and seminars. Attendance to lectures is recommended. The knowledge gained in the lectures will be verified by the examination test. The lectures are designed to prepare students for work in the following seminar. Seminars are used to practice working with CADD software.

Last update: Zitko Jan, doc. PharmDr., Ph.D. (19.12.2017)
Requirements to the exam -

Practical skills acquired at seminars. Theoretical knowledge of lectures.

Last update: Zitko Jan, doc. PharmDr., Ph.D. (30.09.2022)
Syllabus -
  • Drug targets. Structure of proteins, structure of nucleic acids. The importance of specific amino acids for the tertiary structure of the protein and for the catalysis of biochemical reactions.
  • In silico prediction of 3D structure of proteins. Homology models and possibilities of their use. Creating a homology model, automated web services for creating homology models. Critical evaluation of the quality of homology models (Ramachandran plot).
  • Rational approaches to design and development of new drugs. Combinatorial libraries. Chemical information systems and databases. Biological information systems and databases. Crystallographic databases. Critical assessment of 3D protein structures. Data mining from public sources.
  • The importance of physicochemical properties for the action of drugs. Methods of in silico prediction of physico-chemical properties of compounds. In silico prediction of pharmacokinetic parameters, metabolism and toxicity of compounds.
  • Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships (QSAR) and Quantitative Structure-Property Relationships (QSPR).
  • Drug-receptor interactions, intermolecular forces, hydrogen bonds.
  • Experimental methods for monitoring drug-receptor interaction. X-ray crystallographic analysis, NMR experiments, radioligands, isothermal titration calorimetry, thermal shift assay.
  • In silico methods for predicting drug-receptor interaction. Molecular docking. Molecular dynamics.
  • Overview of molecular docking methods. Rigid docking, flexible docking. Search function, conformational sampling, scoring functions. Overview of common molecular docking software and comparison of their functions. Freely available software (AutoDock Vina, DOCK), commercially available programs, online docking services (servers).
  • Critical evaluation of results of molecular docking. Special applications of molecular docking - virtual screening (HTVS), ligand modification.
  • Rational methods of design and development of drugs with known receptor (Structure-based drug design).
  • Rational methods of design and development of drugs with unknown receptor (Ligand-based drug design). QSAR. Pharmacophore models. 3D-QSAR.
  • Case studies. Examples of significant active substances developed with Computer Aided Drug Design (CADD) methods.
Last update: Zitko Jan, doc. PharmDr., Ph.D. (25.09.2025)
Learning resources -

E-learning Moodle: Basics of molecular modelling of drugs
https://dl1.cuni.cz/enrol/index.php?id=4846

Last update: Zitko Jan, doc. PharmDr., Ph.D. (19.12.2017)
Learning outcomes -

  

Course Basics of Molecular Modelling of Drugs builds upon the knowledge and skills acquired in the following courses: General and Bioinorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry I and II, Physical Chemistry, Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Pharmaceutical Chemistry (or equivalent courses).Upon successful completion of the course, students are able to use the following terms (including their commonly used abbreviations) in the correct context related to computer-aided modelling of biologically active molecules: ligand, receptor, binding site, intermolecular interactions, hydrogen bond, ionic interaction, halogen bond, pi-pi interaction, hydrophobic interaction, homology model (of a protein), Ramachandran plot, conformation, AlphaFold, PDB, ChEMBL, PubChem, ZINC, CADD, structure-based drug design, ligand-based drug design, SBDD, LBDD, HTVS, de novo design, docking, molecular dynamics, MD, molecular mechanics, MM, quantum mechanics, QM, force field, energy minimization, RMSD, RMSF, QSAR, QSPR, pharmacophore, molecular fingerprint, Tanimoto index.


Learning outcomes:
Based on the acquired knowledge and skills, students:
•    define the basic concepts, principles, and goals of computer-aided drug design (CADD);
•    are able to navigate protein structures, types of bonds, and interactions between drugs and biological targets;
•    identify and describe the fundamental principles of modelling small molecules and biological structures (molecular mechanics, quantum mechanics);
•    use publicly available databases and tools to model 3D structures of biological targets and small molecules;
•    prepare small molecules and receptor structures for modelling purposes;
•    perform basic molecular docking and evaluate its results using scoring functions and visualization tools;
•    search for potential ligands for a given receptor using a 3D pharmacophore model;
•    explain the principles of molecular dynamics and its applications in studying drug–receptor interactions;
•    design and complete a simple CADD project.

Last update: Navrátilová Lucie, Ing. (08.01.2026)
Entry requirements -

The course requires basic knowledge of the profile course Pharmaceutical Chemistry I and II and disciplines such as organic and bioorganic chemistry and biochemistry. Students applying for the course should have a basic knowledge of PC (MS  Windows, copy and rename files, zipping) and English language.

Last update: Zitko Jan, doc. PharmDr., Ph.D. (30.09.2022)
 
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