Computational approaches to the prediction of the blood–brain distribution

This review attempts to summarise present knowledge related to the theoretical modelling of drug transport across the blood–brain barrier. Several computational protocols are described ranging from quantum mechanics-based approaches through molecular mechanics-related techniques to simple and fast procedures based on only the 2-D graph of the investigated structures. Amazingly, few descriptors have been shown to influence the derived relationships in a significant manner and a cornerstone in most of the described models are terms describing hydrogen bonding. A very quick quantitative assessment of the brain partitioning of a compound has also been devised using the following two rules: If N+O (the number of nitrogen and oxygen atoms) in a molecule is less than or equal to five, it has a high chance of entering the brain. The second rule predicts that if log P−(N+O) is positive then log BB is positive.