Database Commons

a catalog of worldwide biological databases

TIMBAL is a database holding molecules of molecular weight <1200 Daltons that modulate protein-protein interactions. Since its first release, the database has been extended to cover 50 known protein-protein interactions drug targets, including protein complexes that can be stabilized by small molecules with therapeutic effect. The resource contains 14 890 data points for 6896 distinct small molecules. UniProt codes and Protein Data Bank entries are also included. Database URL: http://www-cryst.bioc.cam.ac.uk/timbal

Growing evidence of the possibility of modulating protein-protein interactions with small molecules is opening the door to new approaches and concepts in drug discovery. In this paper, we describe the creation of TIMBAL, a hand-curated database holding an up to date collection of small molecules inhibiting multi-protein complexes. This database has been analysed and profiled in terms of molecular properties. Protein-protein modulators tend to be large lipophilic molecules with few hydrogen bond features. An analysis of TIMBAL's intersection with other structural databases, including CREDO (protein-small molecule from the PDB) and PICCOLO (protein-protein from the PDB) reveals that TIMBAL molecules tend to form mainly hydrophobic interactions with only a few hydrogen bonding contacts. With respect to potency, TIMBAL molecules are slightly less efficient than an average medicinal chemistry hit or lead. The database provides a resource that will allow further insights into the types of molecules favoured by protein interfaces and provide a background to continuing work in this area. Access at http://www-cryst.bioc.cam.ac.uk/timbal.