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ADMET prediction: fiction or reality?
Reviews of the performance of ADMET prediction methods and
models often end with the statement that is "relatively simple to develop models
that fit the entire data set, but that, typically, such models do not predict
new data sets well", what is needed, all reviewers agree, is more and better
data. It doesn't matter how good a new model is, because in the end a model is
as good as the data it is based on.
A criteria-based evaluation of, aqueous solubility (Sw) and octanol-water
partition coefficient (Kow) data sources, for example, shows that
95-100 percent of the database literature is of poor or unevaluable quality. The
accuracy and reliability of the vast majority of the data are unknown due to
inadequate documentation of the methods of determination used by the authors
(for example, estimates of precision have been reported for only 20% of
experimental Sw data).
We need a reliable and accurate determination of solubility
values. The problem when measuring aqueous solubility, either kinetic or
thermodynamic, is to define the conditions used. At present, when we read a
solubility value from a paper, most of the times we do not know how this value
has been obtained. To be able to compare, and therefore to build a reliable
solubility data base, we should specify exactly which solubility we are talking
about and how it was measured, and, ideally, scientists all around the world
should use the same "standard" conditions and notations, i.e. we need to know if
the compound was just thrown into water or if it was an aqueous buffered media,
which buffer, what pH, constant ionic strength, temperature and if it really
reached equilibrium or it was just supposed. We need to know what kind of filter
was used (if any), and the temperature at which we perform this filtration is
important. An analysis of the purity of the starting material is crucial; no
solubility data should be given if the compound is not at least 99.5 % pure. A
crystallographic study could be made on our initial compound before starting the
measurements, and, if possible, after, to be sure that the reported solubility
corresponds to the same crystal structure and not to a polymorph, and last, we
need to assess the quality of the data repeating the experiment several times,
giving statistical analysis together with the final values (estimates of
precision, errors, deviations
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Physical Chemists by Physical Chemists
