Molecular modeling studies of HIV-1 non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors using 3D-QSAR, virtual screening, and docking simulations

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a significant human health threat around the world and therefore, the study of anti-HIV drug design has become an important task for today’s society. In this paper, a three-dimensional quantitative structure–activity relationships study (3D-QSAR) was conducted on 72 HIV-1 non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) using Topomer comparative molecular field analysis (Topomer CoMFA). The multiple correlation coefficients of fitting, cross-validation, and external validation were 0.899, 0.788 and 0.942, respectively. The results indicated that the obtained model had both a favorable estimation stability and a good prediction capability. Topomer Search was used to search appropriate R groups from the ZINC database, Thereby, 14 new compounds were designed, and 12 of the new compounds were predicted to be more active than the template molecule. These results strongly suggest that the Topomer search was effective in screening and could be a useful guide in the design of new HIV-1 drugs. The ligands of the template molecule and the new designed compounds were used for molecular docking to study the interaction of these compounds with the protein receptor. The results showed that the ligands would generally form hydrogen-bonding interactions with the residues Ala28, Asp29, Gly49 and Ile50 of the protein receptor, thereby providing additional insights for the designing of even more effective drugs.