The Use of Methods of Computer-Aided Drug Discovery in the Development of Topoisomerase II Inhibitors: Applications and Future Directions

Abstract

Topoisomerase II (TopoII) is an enzyme essential for cellular metabolism and replication as it regulates DNA topology. Since inhibition of TopoII induces cell death, it is a well-established drug target in cancer therapy; several broadly used anticancer drugs including etoposide and doxorubicin are TopoII inhibitors. However, these therapeutics tend to cause severe side effects and suffer from relatively low ligand affinity, leaving TopoII targeting with small molecules an active area of research. In recent years computer-aided drug discovery (CADD) approaches have been actively used to expand knowledge on the role of TopoII in cancer and to develop novel strategies for its inhibition. Herein, we overview studies that employed structure-based approaches such as docking and molecular dynamic simulations, as well as ligand-based approaches, such as QSAR (quantitative structure-activity relationship) modeling among others, to gain understanding in TopoII targeting with existing drugs and to search for novel drug candidates.