Receptor- and ligand-based 3D-QSAR study for a series of non-nucleoside
HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitors
Rongjing Hu
a,b
, Florent Barbault
b
, Michel Delamar
b,
*
, Ruisheng Zhang
a,c,
*
a
Department of Chemistry, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China
b
Interfaces, Traitement, Organisation et Dynamique des Systèmes (ITODYS), Paris-Diderot (Paris 7) University, CNRS UMR 7086, Bâtiment Lavoisier,
15 rue Jean Antoine de Baïf, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France
c
School of Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China
article info
Article history:
Received 3 October 2008
Revised 16 January 2009
Accepted 5 February 2009
Available online 8 February 2009
Keywords:
QSAR
CoMFA
CoMSIA
Docking
NNRTIs
HIV-1 reverse transcriptase
abstract
Molecular modeling of a series of HIV reverse transcriptase (RT) non-nucleoside inhibitors (2-amino-6-
arylsulfonylbenzonitriles and their thio and sulfinyl congeners) was carried out by comparative molecu-
lar field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) approaches.
Docking simulations were employed to position the inhibitors into RT active site to determine the most
probable binding mode and most reliable conformations. The study was conducted using a complex
receptor-based and ligand-based alignment procedure and different alignment modes were studied to
obtain highly reliable and predictive CoMFA and CoMSIA models with cross-validated q
2
value of 0.723
and 0.760, respectively. Furthermore, the CoMFA and CoMSIA contour maps with the 3D structure of
the target (the binding site of RT) inlaid were obtained to better understand the interaction between
the RT protein and the inhibitors and the structural requirements for inhibitory activity against HIV-1.
We show that for 2-amino-6-arylsulfonylbenzonitriles inhibitors to have appreciable inhibitory activity,
bulky and hydrophobic groups in 3- and 5-position of the B ring are required. Moreover, H-bond donor
groups in 2-position of the A ring to build up H-bonding with the Lys101 residue of the RT protein are also
favorable to activity.
Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The HIV type 1 reverse transcriptase (HIV-1 RT) is an essential
viral enzyme in HIV-1 virus. After HIV-1 infects a cell, RT plays a
central role in the viral replication cycle by catalyzing the conver-
sion of genomic single-stranded RNA into double-stranded proviral
DNA. The viral DNA is then integrated into the host chromosomal
DNA which then allows host cellular processes, such as transcrip-
tion and translation to reproduce the virus. HIV-1 RT is an asym-
metric heterodimer consisting of two polypeptides, p66 and p51.
1
Due to its importance, HIV-1 RT has been one of the major tar-
gets of the antiretroviral drugs. Nucleoside and non-nucleoside RT
inhibitors (NRTIs and NNRTIs) are two different categories:
2–4
the
former is an analogue of the natural deoxynucleotides that com-
pete with the natural deoxynucleotides for incorporation into the
growing viral DNA chain; the latter noncompetitively inhibits the
movement of protein domains of RT that are needed to carry out
the process of DNA synthesis. Nevirapine is a NNRTI used to treat
HIV-1 infection and AIDS, which was discovered by Hargrave
et al.
5
Later, different types of NNRTIs with similar interaction be-
tween inhibitors and RT protein have been discovered or de-
signed.
6,7
The high bioactivity and effectivity of nevirapine and
other inhibitors proved that RT is an important and significant tar-
get to design anti-HIV drugs.
A series of NNRTIs (2-amino-6-arylsulfonylbenzonitriles and
their thio and sulfinyl congeners) (Table 1) were designed by Chan
et al.
8
Because of their high activity and low toxicity, researchers
have studied them in order to get more information about the
activity and to design more potential anti-HIV-1 drugs.
9–11
In the
present work, a receptor-guided and ligand-based three-dimen-
sional quantitative structure–activity relationship (3D-QSAR)
study was carried out for the first time for this series of inhibitors.
Receptor-guided QSAR is only available when the 3D structures of
a target protein or its homologue bound to the active compound
have been experimentally solved. We thus performed a docking
study to search for reasonable conformations and alignments for
CoMFA and CoMSIA studies and gain an insight into the interaction
between ligands and RT protein.
CoMFA relates the bioactivity of inhibitors with their steric and
electrostatic fields sampled at grid points defining a 3D box around
molecules.
12
CoMSIA is most commonly applied in drug discovery
0968-0896/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.bmc.2009.02.003
* Corresponding authors. Tel.: +33 1 57 27 54 32; fax: +33 1 57 27 72 63 (M.D.),
Tel.: +86 931 8914000 8421 (R.Z.).
E-mail addresses: michel.delamar@univ-paris-diderot.fr (M. Delamar),
zhangrs@lzu.edu.cn (R. Zhang).
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry 17 (2009) 2400–2409
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/bmc