NALD: Nucleic Acids and Ligands Database

Abstract

The nucleic acids and ligands database (NALD) is concerned with the identification of ligands (drugs) that bind nucleic acids (NA) and provide users with sets of specific information in relation to the binding existing between both molecules. NALD thus annotates nucleic acids in complexes with ligands in terms of detailed binding interactions, binding motifs where binding occurs, binding properties, binding modes & classes and links to diseases may be in association with the ligands. These were calculated from entries of NA/Ligand complexes from the protein data bank (PDB) and also extracted by both automatic and manual means from scientific literature sources such as the PubMed web site (PMID) and publications (in hardcopy form). NALD provides online access to these types of information while it focuses on ligands that bind nucleic acids with implications on diseases of high prevalence in Africa and in particular in Algeria and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, hepatitis, malaria and tuberculosis. The database offers data integration in the form of links to the PDB, DrugBank, and other resources such as UniProt and PubMed databases. In addition and for those ligands classified as known drugs, drug information extracted from the DrugBank. NALD can be accessed freely from http://www.bioinformaticstools.org/nald.