Modeling antimalarial activity: application of Kinetic Energy Density Quantum Similarity Measures as descriptors in QSAR

Abstract

In this work, is studied the application, within a quantum similarity framework, of the recently described Kinetic Energy Density Function in the evaluation of the antimalarial activity. First, this new type of Density Function is briefly presented from its theoretical foundations, and its inclusion in the molecular quantum similarity is discussed afterward. The application of Kinetic Energy-based Quantum Similarity Measures to QSAR is tested with 2 molecular sets composed of artemisinin derivatives, in which the 50% inhibition of synthesis and reduction of hidrofolate (IC50) in different Plasmodium falciparum clones are analyzed. Satisfactory correlations are obtained for all antimalarial activities in all studied molecular sets. Molecular Quantum Similarity analysis provides a consistent, unbiased, and homogeneous set of molecular descriptors and is a feasible alternative to the use of classical physicochemical descriptors.