Ki Database
The Ki Database is a public domain bioinformatics database of published binding affinities of drugs and other chemical compounds for a wide range of biological targets. The database primarily stores inhibition constant values, which measure the potency of a compound in inhibiting the binding of a radioligand to a specific target, such as a receptor, neurotransmitter transporter, ion channel, or enzyme.
The resource is maintained by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is funded by the NIMH Psychoactive Drug Screening Program and by a gift from the Heffter Research Institute., the database had data for 7,449 compounds at 738 different receptors and, as of 2018, 67 696 Ki values.
Purpose and uses
The Ki Database serves as a data warehouse for both internally generated data and data curated from published scientific literature. It is created and maintained by the National Institute of Mental Health Psychoactive Drug Screening Program, which is based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and directed by pharmacologist Bryan L. Roth. The resource is a key tool in the fields of pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, and neuroscience for identifying the molecular targets of psychoactive compounds, predicting off-target effects, and guiding drug discovery efforts.As of 2017, the PDSP was testing an average of 4,000 compounds in over 215,000 assays annually, with the data being made publicly available through the database. The program is supported by an NIMH contract and has also received funding from the Heffter Research Institute. The Ki database has data useful for both chemical biology and chemogenetics.