Structure-Activity Relationships (SAR)

The structural–activity relationship (SAR) describes the link between a molecule's chemical structure and its biological activity. The determination of the chemical group responsible for triggering a target biological action in the organism is possible via SAR analysis. This allows for the change of a bioactive compound's action or potency (usually a medication) by altering its chemical structure. Medicinal chemists employ chemical synthesis techniques to introduce new chemical groups into medicinal compounds and then test their biological effects. The Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR) method is used to discover correlations between a compound's chemical structure (or structural-related attributes) and its biological activity (or target property). As such, it is the idea of connecting chemical structure to a chemical characteristic (e.g., water solubility) or biological activity (e.g., toxicity) (e.g., fish acute mortality). (Q)SARs are a term that refers to both qualitative and quantitative SARs. Non-continuous data (e.g., yes/no data) yields qualitative relationships, whereas continuous data yields quantitative correlations (e.g., toxic potency data).

• Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships
• Medicinal Chemistry and SAR