On Applications of Macromolecular QSAR Theory

Present chapter reviews the application of Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships for the treatment of molecules involving thousands of atoms, such as proteins, nucleic acids (DNA, RNA), or polysaccharides. This is a new developing area of interest in Chemoinformatics, and it is expected to have a growing number of applications during the forthcoming years. Among the several points to be addressed during the modeling of macromolecules, the most important one appears to be the accurate representation of the chemical structure through numerical descriptors. It has to be noticed that descriptors based on optimized three-dimensional geometry are difficult to specify, and it is also a drawback the fact that the experimental geometry is not available. However, different experts in the field have been generalizing the employment of classical types of topological descriptors in macromolecular systems.