Virtual Screening Approaches to Identify Promising Multitarget-Directed Ligands for the Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder. The available medical treatment options for autism spectrum disorder are very limited. While the etiology and pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorder are still not fully understood, recent studies have suggested that wide alterations in the GABAergic, glutamatergic, cholinergic, and serotonergic systems play a key role in its development and progression. Histamine neurotransmission is known to have complex interactions with other neurotransmitters that fit perfectly into the complex etiology of this disease. Multitarget-directed compounds with an affinity for the histamine H receptor indicate an interesting profile of activity against autism spectrum disorder in animal models. Here, we present the results of our research on the properties of (4-piperazin-1-ylbutyl)guanidine derivatives acting on histamine H receptors as potential multitarget ligands. Through the virtual screening approach, we identified promising ligands among 32 non-imidazole histamine H receptor antagonists/inverse agonists with potential additional activity against the dopamine D receptor and/or cholinesterases. The virtual screening protocol integrated predictions from SwissTargetPrediction, SEA, and PPB2 tools, along with molecular docking simulations conducted using GOLD 5.3 and Glide 7.5 software. Among the selected ligands, compounds and blocked radioligand binding to the D receptor at over 50% at a screening concentration of 1 µM. Further experiments allowed us to determine the p value at the D receptor of 6.22 and 6.12 for compounds and , respectively. Our findings suggest that some of the tested compounds could be promising multitarget-directed ligands for the further research and development of more effective treatments for autism spectrum disorder.