title: PLI: a web-based tool for the comparison of protein-ligand interactions observed on PDB structures.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A large fraction of the entries contained in the Protein Data Bank describe proteins in complex with low molecular weight molecules such as physiological compounds or synthetic drugs. In many cases, the same molecule is found in distinct protein-ligand complexes. There is an increasing interest in Medicinal Chemistry in comparing protein binding sites to get insight on interactions that modulate the binding specificity, as this structural information can be correlated with other experimental data of biochemical or physiological nature and may help in rational drug design.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The web service protein-ligand interaction presented here provides a tool to analyse and compare the binding pockets of homologous proteins in complex with a selected ligand. The information is deduced from protein-ligand complexes present in the Protein Data Bank and stored in the underlying database.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Freely accessible at http://bioinformatics.istge.it/pli/.
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria San Martino-IST-Istituto Nazionale Ricerca sul Cancro, 16132 Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Gallina
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bisignano
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bergamino
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bordo
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D030562:Databases, Protein; D015195:Drug Design; D020407:Internet; D008024:Ligands; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D012984:Software
chemical_list: D008024:Ligands; D011506:Proteins