Similarity searching in files of three-dimensional chemical structures: Analysis of the BIOSTER database using two-dimensional fingerprints and molecular field descriptors

This paper compares the effectiveness of similarity measures based on two-d imensional fingerprints and on molecular fields for identifying pairs of bi oisosteric molecules in the BIOSTER database. The results suggest that the two types of descriptor are complementary in nature, each finding some bioi sosteric pairs that are not found by the other. This conclusion is confirme d by studies of groups of BIOSTER molecules that share the same activity ch aracteristics, and by experiments that involve combining the two types of s imilarity measure.