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Are the physicochemical properties of antibacterial compounds really different from other drugs?

Overview of attention for article published in Journal of Cheminformatics, June 2016
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (74th percentile)
  • Average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source

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1 policy source
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4 X users

Citations

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43 Dimensions

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111 Mendeley
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Title
Are the physicochemical properties of antibacterial compounds really different from other drugs?
Published in
Journal of Cheminformatics, June 2016
DOI 10.1186/s13321-016-0143-5
Pubmed ID
Authors

Jean-Paul Ebejer, Michael H. Charlton, Paul W. Finn

Abstract

It is now widely recognized that there is an urgent need for new antibacterial drugs, with novel mechanisms of action, to combat the rise of multi-drug resistant bacteria. However, few new compounds are reaching the market. Antibacterial drug discovery projects often succeed in identifying potent molecules in biochemical assays but have been beset by difficulties in obtaining antibacterial activity. A commonly held view, based on analysis of marketed antibacterial compounds, is that antibacterial drugs possess very different physicochemical properties to other drugs, and that this profile is required for antibacterial activity. We have re-examined this issue by performing a cheminformatics analysis of the literature data available in the ChEMBL database. The physicochemical properties of compounds with a recorded activity in an antibacterial assay were calculated and compared to two other datasets extracted from ChEMBL, marketed antibacterials and drugs marketed for other therapeutic indications. The chemical class of the compounds and Gram-negative/Gram-positive profile were also investigated. This analysis shows that compounds with antibacterial activity have physicochemical property profiles very similar to other drug classes. The observation that many current antibacterial drugs lie in regions of physicochemical property space far from conventional small molecule therapeutics is correct. However, the inference that a compound must lie in one of these "outlier" regions in order to possess antibacterial activity is not supported by our analysis. Graphical abstract.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 4 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 111 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Portugal 1 <1%
Colombia 1 <1%
Indonesia 1 <1%
Norway 1 <1%
Brazil 1 <1%
India 1 <1%
Belgium 1 <1%
Unknown 104 94%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 26 23%
Student > Ph. D. Student 23 21%
Student > Master 16 14%
Student > Bachelor 6 5%
Student > Doctoral Student 4 4%
Other 16 14%
Unknown 20 18%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Chemistry 33 30%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 15 14%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 12 11%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 11 10%
Chemical Engineering 3 3%
Other 9 8%
Unknown 28 25%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 6. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 07 March 2023.
All research outputs
#4,897,716
of 23,549,388 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Cheminformatics
#465
of 872 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#83,268
of 341,339 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Cheminformatics
#9
of 14 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,549,388 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 76th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 872 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 11.0. This one is in the 46th percentile – i.e., 46% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 341,339 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 74% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 14 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 42nd percentile – i.e., 42% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.