A QSAR APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF STRUCTURAL REQUIREMENTS OF MUSCARINIC RECEPTOR LIGANDS .1. AGONISTS

This report examines the development of quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) in the analysis of ligand muscarinic receptor interactions. Several sets of agonists acting on different tissues (distinct receptor subtypes) are considered. It is shown that QSAR may represent a suitable tool to increase the general understanding of the nature of ligand interactions at receptor sites. The points discussed in the paper are to draw attention to the development of correlations between biological affinity constants and molecular architecture of the ligands which are essential for deriving refined concepts on the topology of muscarinic receptor sites.