International Journal of Molecular Sciences Review Integrated Computational Approaches and Tools for Allosteric Drug Discovery Olivier Sheik Amamuddy 1 , Wayde Veldman 1 , Colleen Manyumwa 1 , Afrah Khairallah 1 , Steve Agajanian 2, Odeyemi Oluyemi 2, Gennady M. Verkhivker 2,3,* and Özlem Tastan Bishop 1,* 1 Research Unit in Bioinformatics (RUBi), Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa;
[email protected] (O.S.A.);
[email protected] (W.V.);
[email protected] (C.M.);
[email protected] (A.K.) 2 Graduate Program in Computational and Data Sciences, Keck Center for Science and Engineering, Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, One University Drive, Orange, CA 92866, USA;
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[email protected] (O.O.) 3 Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chapman University School of Pharmacy, Irvine, CA 92618, USA * Correspondence:
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[email protected] (Ö.T.B.); Tel.: +714-516-4586 (G.M.V.); +27-46-603-8072 (Ö.T.B.) Received: 25 December 2019; Accepted: 21 January 2020; Published: 28 January 2020 Abstract: Understanding molecular mechanisms underlying the complexity of allosteric regulation in proteins has attracted considerable attention in drug discovery due to the benefits and versatility of allosteric modulators in providing desirable selectivity against protein targets while minimizing toxicity and other side effects. The proliferation of novel computational approaches for predicting ligand–protein interactions and binding using dynamic and network-centric perspectives has led to new insights into allosteric mechanisms and facilitated computer-based discovery of allosteric drugs. Although no absolute method of experimental and in silico allosteric drug/site discovery exists, current methods are still being improved.