Molecular fingerprint similarity search in virtual screening

• Fingerprints are easy to use and fast.
• Different kinds of fingerprints encode different aspects of the molecules.
• Popular fingerprint algorithms and their uses.
• Brief comparison with other virtual screening methods.

Molecular fingerprints have been used for a long time now in drug discovery and virtual screening. Their ease of use (requiring little to no configuration) and the speed at which substructure and similarity searches can be performed with them – paired with a virtual screening performance similar to other more complex methods – is the reason for their popularity. However, there are many types of fingerprints, each representing a different aspect of the molecule, which can greatly affect search performance. This review focuses on commonly used fingerprint algorithms, their usage in virtual screening, and the software packages and online tools that provide these algorithms.

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