Drug selectivity is an important aspect for evaluating the ADRs of drugs, and there is evidence that compound target promiscuity is largely correlated with its lipophilicity and ionization states. It is widely agreed that drug attrition is closely related with its ADMET properties.
What is selectivity of a drug?
Selectivity will be used to describe the ability of a drug to affect a particular population, i.e., gene, protein, signaling pathway, or cell, in preference to others. For example a selective drug would have the ability to discriminate between, and so affect only one cell population, and thereby produce an event.
How is drug selectivity determined?
Selectivity is defined as the ratio of the affinity of the compound towards the off-target protein relative to the target protein (Kd ratio = Kd,offtarget/Kd,target). The larger the Kd ratio, the better the selectivity.
