ArticleBMC bioinformatics2025
SMILES alignment: a dynamic programming approach for the alignment of metabolites and other small organic molecules.
Article in BMC bioinformatics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere is a need for computational approaches to compare small organic molecules based on chemical similarity or for evaluating biochemical transformations. No tool currently exists to generate global molecular alignments for small organic molecules. The study introduces a new approach to molecular alignment in the Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry System (SMILES) format. This method leverages programming and scoring alignments to minimize differences in electronegativity, here using a measure of atomic partial charges to address the challenge of understanding structural transformations in reaction pathways. This can be applied to study transitions from linear to cyclical pathways.
resultsThe proposed method is based on the Needleman-Wunsch algorithm for sequence alignment, but it uses a modified scoring function for different input data. Validation against a benchmarked dataset from the Krebs cycle, based on the known chemical transformations in the pathway, confirmed the efficacy of the approach in aligning atoms that are known to be the same across the transformation. The algorithm also quantified each transformation of metabolites in the Pentose Phosphate Pathway and in Glycolysis. The method was used to study the difference in chemical similarity over transformations between linear and cyclical pathways. The study found a midpoint dissimilarity peak in cyclical pathways (particularly the Krebs Cycle) and a progressive decrease in molecular similarity in linear pathways, consistent with expectations.
conclusionsThe study introduces an algorithm that quantifies molecular transformations in metabolic pathways. The algorithm effectively highlights structural changes and was applied to a hypothesis about the transition from linear to cyclical structures. The software, which provides valuable insights into molecular transformations, is available at: https://github.com/24atang/SMILES-Alignment.git.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.