Integrating Synthetic Accessibility Scoring and AI-Based Retrosynthesis Analysis to Evaluate AI-Generated Drug Molecules Synthesizability

<b>Background:</b> One of the challenges of applying artificial intelligence (AI) methods to drug discovery is the difficulty of laboratory synthesizability for many AI-discovered molecules. Often, in silico techniques and metrics such as the computationally enabled synthesizability scor...

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Main Authors: Mokete Motente, Uche A. K. Chude-Okonkwo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Drugs and Drug Candidates
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2813-2998/4/2/26
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author Mokete Motente
Uche A. K. Chude-Okonkwo
author_facet Mokete Motente
Uche A. K. Chude-Okonkwo
author_sort Mokete Motente
collection DOAJ
description <b>Background:</b> One of the challenges of applying artificial intelligence (AI) methods to drug discovery is the difficulty of laboratory synthesizability for many AI-discovered molecules. Often, in silico techniques and metrics such as the computationally enabled synthesizability score and AI-based retrosynthesis analysis are used. <b>Methods:</b> In this paper, we present a predictive synthesizability method that integrates the gains of synthetic accessibility scoring and the benefits of AI-driven retrosynthesis analysis tools to evaluate the synthesizability of AI-generated lead drug molecules. <b>Results:</b> We explored the proposed method by using it to analyze the synthesizability of a set of 123 novel molecules generated using AI models. The analysis of the synthesis route of the four best molecules from the set in terms of synthesizability, as identified using the proposed method, is presented. <b>Conclusions:</b> This strategy enables quick initial screening and more comprehensive actionable synthetic pathways, thereby balancing speed and detail, and favoring simple routes to avoid the risk of pursuing non-synthesizable compounds in the drug development pipeline.
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spelling doaj-art-adddbca981f24902bc8f76d7ea5fbc8b2025-08-20T03:27:10ZengMDPI AGDrugs and Drug Candidates2813-29982025-05-01422610.3390/ddc4020026Integrating Synthetic Accessibility Scoring and AI-Based Retrosynthesis Analysis to Evaluate AI-Generated Drug Molecules SynthesizabilityMokete Motente0Uche A. K. Chude-Okonkwo1Institute for Artificial Intelligent Systems, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park 2006, South AfricaInstitute for Artificial Intelligent Systems, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa<b>Background:</b> One of the challenges of applying artificial intelligence (AI) methods to drug discovery is the difficulty of laboratory synthesizability for many AI-discovered molecules. Often, in silico techniques and metrics such as the computationally enabled synthesizability score and AI-based retrosynthesis analysis are used. <b>Methods:</b> In this paper, we present a predictive synthesizability method that integrates the gains of synthetic accessibility scoring and the benefits of AI-driven retrosynthesis analysis tools to evaluate the synthesizability of AI-generated lead drug molecules. <b>Results:</b> We explored the proposed method by using it to analyze the synthesizability of a set of 123 novel molecules generated using AI models. The analysis of the synthesis route of the four best molecules from the set in terms of synthesizability, as identified using the proposed method, is presented. <b>Conclusions:</b> This strategy enables quick initial screening and more comprehensive actionable synthetic pathways, thereby balancing speed and detail, and favoring simple routes to avoid the risk of pursuing non-synthesizable compounds in the drug development pipeline.https://www.mdpi.com/2813-2998/4/2/26drug discoveryartificial intelligencesynthesizabilitysynthetic accessibility scoreretrosynthesis
spellingShingle Mokete Motente
Uche A. K. Chude-Okonkwo
Integrating Synthetic Accessibility Scoring and AI-Based Retrosynthesis Analysis to Evaluate AI-Generated Drug Molecules Synthesizability
Drugs and Drug Candidates
drug discovery
artificial intelligence
synthesizability
synthetic accessibility score
retrosynthesis
title Integrating Synthetic Accessibility Scoring and AI-Based Retrosynthesis Analysis to Evaluate AI-Generated Drug Molecules Synthesizability
title_full Integrating Synthetic Accessibility Scoring and AI-Based Retrosynthesis Analysis to Evaluate AI-Generated Drug Molecules Synthesizability
title_fullStr Integrating Synthetic Accessibility Scoring and AI-Based Retrosynthesis Analysis to Evaluate AI-Generated Drug Molecules Synthesizability
title_full_unstemmed Integrating Synthetic Accessibility Scoring and AI-Based Retrosynthesis Analysis to Evaluate AI-Generated Drug Molecules Synthesizability
title_short Integrating Synthetic Accessibility Scoring and AI-Based Retrosynthesis Analysis to Evaluate AI-Generated Drug Molecules Synthesizability
title_sort integrating synthetic accessibility scoring and ai based retrosynthesis analysis to evaluate ai generated drug molecules synthesizability
topic drug discovery
artificial intelligence
synthesizability
synthetic accessibility score
retrosynthesis
url https://www.mdpi.com/2813-2998/4/2/26
work_keys_str_mv AT moketemotente integratingsyntheticaccessibilityscoringandaibasedretrosynthesisanalysistoevaluateaigenerateddrugmoleculessynthesizability
AT ucheakchudeokonkwo integratingsyntheticaccessibilityscoringandaibasedretrosynthesisanalysistoevaluateaigenerateddrugmoleculessynthesizability