Advanced Chemistry Development, Moscow Department, 6 Akademik Bakulev Street, Moscow 117513, Russian Federation.
J Cheminform. 2009 Mar 17;1:3. doi: 10.1186/1758-2946-1-3.
This article coincides with the 40 year anniversary of the first published works devoted to the creation of algorithms for computer-aided structure elucidation (CASE). The general principles on which CASE methods are based will be reviewed and the present state of the art in this field will be described using, as an example, the expert system Structure Elucidator.
The developers of CASE systems have been forced to overcome many obstacles hindering the development of a software application capable of drastically reducing the time and effort required to determine the structures of newly isolated organic compounds. Large complex molecules of up to 100 or more skeletal atoms with topological peculiarity can be quickly identified using the expert system Structure Elucidator based on spectral data. Logical analysis of 2D NMR data frequently allows for the detection of the presence of COSY and HMBC correlations of "nonstandard" length. Fuzzy structure generation provides a possibility to obtain the correct solution even in those cases when an unknown number of nonstandard correlations of unknown length are present in the spectra. The relative stereochemistry of big rigid molecules containing many stereocenters can be determined using the StrucEluc system and NOESY/ROESY 2D NMR data for this purpose.
The StrucEluc system continues to be developed in order to expand the general applicability, provide improved workflows, usability of the system and increased reliability of the results. It is expected that expert systems similar to that described in this paper will receive increasing acceptance in the next decade and will ultimately be integrated directly to analytical instruments for the purpose of organic analysis. Work in this direction is in progress. In spite of the fact that many difficulties have already been overcome to deliver on the spectroscopist's dream of "fully automated structure elucidation" there is still work to do. Nevertheless, as the efficiency of expert systems is enhanced the solution of increasingly complex structural problems will be achievable.
本文恰逢第一篇致力于创建计算机辅助结构解析（CASE）算法的文章发表 40 周年。本文将回顾 CASE 方法所基于的一般原理，并使用专家系统 Structure Elucidator 为例描述该领域的现状。
CASE 系统的开发人员不得不克服许多障碍，这些障碍阻碍了开发一种能够大大减少确定新分离有机化合物结构所需时间和精力的软件应用程序。使用基于光谱数据的专家系统 Structure Elucidator，可以快速识别具有拓扑特殊性的多达 100 个或更多骨架原子的大型复杂分子。二维 NMR 数据的逻辑分析经常允许检测到 COSY 和 HMBC 相关性的“非标准”长度。模糊结构生成提供了一种可能性，即使在光谱中存在未知数量的未知长度的非标准相关性的情况下，也能获得正确的解决方案。StrucEluc 系统可用于确定包含许多立体中心的大刚性分子的相对立体化学，为此目的使用 StrucEluc 系统和 NOESY/ROESY 二维 NMR 数据。
StrucEluc 系统将继续开发，以扩大其通用性、提供改进的工作流程、提高系统的可用性和提高结果的可靠性。预计在未来十年内，类似于本文中描述的专家系统将越来越被接受，并最终直接集成到分析仪器中用于有机分析。这方面的工作正在进行中。尽管已经克服了许多困难，实现了光谱学家“全自动结构解析”的梦想，但仍有工作要做。尽管如此，随着专家系统效率的提高，解决越来越复杂的结构问题将成为可能。
