Alvascience: A New Software Suite for the QSAR Workflow Applied to the Blood–Brain Barrier Permeability

Abstract

Quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) and quantitative structure–property relationship (QSPR) are established techniques to relate endpoints to molecular features. We present the Alvascience software suite that takes care of the whole QSAR/QSPR workflow necessary to use models to predict endpoints for untested molecules. The first step, data curation, is covered by alvaMolecule. Features such as molecular descriptors and fingerprints are generated by using alvaDesc. Models are built and validated with alvaModel. The models can then be deployed and used on new molecules by using alvaRunner. We use these software tools on a real case scenario to predict the blood–brain barrier (BBB) permeability. The resulting predictive models have accuracy equal or greater than 0.8. The models are bundled in an alvaRunner project available on the Alvascience website.