Using PyMOL as a platform for computational drug design

PyMOL, a cross-platform molecular graphics tool, has been widely used for three-dimensional (3D) visualization of proteins, nucleic acids, small molecules, electron densities, surfaces, and trajectories. It is also capable of editing molecules, ray tracing, and making movies. This Python-based software, alongside many Python plugin tools, has been developed to enhance its utilities and facilitate the drug design in PyMOL. To gain an insightful view of useful drug design tools and their functions in PyMOL, we present an extensive discussion on various molecular modeling modules in PyMOL, covering those for visualization and analysis enhancement, protein-ligand modeling, molecular simulations, and drug screening. This review provides an excellent introduction to present 3D structures visualization and computational drug design in PyMOL. (C) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd