A pseudo-sequence method for comparing 7TM receptors with respect to the
physicochemical properties of their binding sites, the method comprising
the steps of: (i) optionally, aligning part of or all of the amino acid
sequence of the first 7TM receptor with part of or all or the amino acid
sequence of the one or more further 7TM receptors, (ii) selecting, in a
sequential or non-sequential order, at the most 12 amino acid residues
per helix and/or extracellular loops, which are involved in one or more
binding sites of each 7TM receptor. (iii) forming a pseudo-sequence
comprising at the most 50 amino acid residues from the selected
sequential or non-sequential amino acid residues, (iv) for each 7TM
receptor assigning one or more physicochemical descriptors to the amino
acid residues of the selected amino acid pseudo-sequence involved in one
or more binding sites, (v) optionally, for each 7TM receptor
mathematically manipulating the physicochemical descriptors of step (iv)
to obtain a simplified measure of the physicochemical properties of the
binding site. (vi) for each 7TM receptor generating a similarity score as
defined herein by comparing the physicochemical descriptor or, if
relevant, the simplified measure for the first 7TM receptor with the
physicochemical descriptors or, if relevant, the simplified measures for
the one or further 7TM receptors, (vii) optionally, ranking the 7TM
receptors with respect to the physicochemical properties of their binding
sites according to the similarity scores obtained in step vi)