Computer-Assisted Design of Peptide-Based Radiotracers

Abstract

In medical imaging, techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging, contrast-enhanced computerized tomography, positron emission tomography (PET), and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) are extensively available and routinely used for disease diagnosis. PET probes with peptide-based targeting are typically composed of small peptides especially developed to have high affinity and specificity for a range of cellular and tissue targets. These probes’ key benefits include being less expensive than traditional antibody-based PET tracers and having an effective chemical modification process that allows them to be radiolabeled with almost any radionuclide, making them highly appealing for clinical usage. Currently, as with every pharmaceutical design, the use of in silico strategies is steadily growing in this field, even though it is not part of the standard toolkit used during radiopharmaceutical design. This review describes the recent applications of computational design approaches in the design of novel peptide-based radiopharmaceuticals.

Progress of the “Molecular Informatics” Section in 2022

“…To collect high-quality research articles in all fields of molecular informatics applied to the understanding of the intricate world of biology and molecular research, the Topical Collection, "Feature Papers in Molecular Informatics", was created, and, looking only at 2022, 25 papers were published . The most recent developments in computer science applied to molecular modeling have been discussed as hot topics in the two collections entitled "State-of-the-Art Molecular Informatics in Italy", which was closed at the end of 2022 [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33], and "Latest Review Papers in Molecular Informatics 2023", which was closed at the end of February 2023 [34,35]. In 2022, the number of closed SIs was 22, and the top SI based on the number of published articles and visualizations was the one dedicated to "Deep Learning and Machine Learning in Bioinformatics" .…”

Effectiveness of CAD-CAM Application for the Development design and implementation of maintenance tools

“…In this context, carrying out a literature review analysis becomes important to understand and evaluate the extent to which the effectiveness of using CAD-CAM in the development, design and implementation of maintenance tools has been studied in the literature. By exploring the insights from various previous studies, the strengths and weaknesses of this technology, challenges in its application, as well as opportunities and potential for further development can be identified (Patamia et al, 2023).…”