Molecular docking studies of tyrosine kinase inhibitors: Exemplified protocol to advance pharmaceutical education in medicinal chemistry

Abstract

Background: One of the essential goals of pharmacy education is to extend professional learning to pharmacists, pharmacy students and educators. Medicinal chemistry is a major component of this professional learning. Nowadays, computer-aided drug design (CADD) is considered a cornerstone in drug discovery platforms. However, this computational drug design is not crystal-clear to pharmacy students and pharmacists. In this study, a molecular docking process was established to advance pharmaceutical education in the medicinal chemistry field. Method: CADD is available in the syllabus of Iraqi pharmacy schools however the software packages are not available for the students to practice the docking process. Five different compounds were designed and docked by employing the Genetic Optimisation of Ligand Docking (GOLD) software and the scores were recorded. Results: Pharmacy students would use this exemplified docking to enhance their understanding of the medicinal chemistry module. Conclusion: This educational docking study was successfully performed to advance the pharmacy education.