Freely Accessible Chemical Database Resources of Compounds for In Silico Drug Discovery

Background: In silico drug discovery has been proved to be a solidly established key component in early drug discovery. However, this task is hampered by the limitation of quantity and quality of compound databases for screening. In order to overcome these obstacles, freely accessible database resources of compounds have bloomed in recent years. Nevertheless, how to choose appropriate tools to treat these freely accessible databases is crucial. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic review on this issue. Objective: The existed advantages and drawbacks of chemical databases were analyzed and summarized based on the collected six categories of freely accessible chemical databases from literature in this review. Results: Suggestions on how and in which conditions the usage of these databases could be reasonable were provided. Tools and procedures for building 3D structure chemical libraries were also introduced. Conclusion: In this review, we described the freely accessible chemical database resources for in silico drug discovery. In particular, the chemical information for building chemical database appears as attractive resources for drug design to alleviate experimental pressure.