NMR spectroscopy in drug design*

The process of preclinical drug discovery consists of two steps: finding of initial hits (binding ligands to a medicinal relevant target, usually a protein) and lead optimization. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is a powerful tool that can provide valuable information to every step of drug development. NMR is commonly used for characterizing the structure and molecular dynamics of target or ligand molecules. During the structure-based lead optimization, NMR provides insight into the structural and dynamical properties of the target-ligand complex. Recently, the use of NMR in the lead finding process by screening technologies has been shown. For the latter use, new techniques have also been developed. Those techniques, in combination with high throughput, have lead to an efficient screening of libraries composed of small molecules. In this article, the role of NMR during the discovery of a drug candidate is described.