Multiple-receptor conformation docking, dock pose clustering, and 3D QSAR-driven approaches exploring new HIV-1 RT inhibitors

Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 reverse transcriptase (HIV-1 RT) plays a key in the life cycle of HIV-1. It is considered to be one of the promising targets for treating HIV/AIDS which contains two drug binding sites, a substrate binding site, and an allosteric site. Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) are a class of RT inhibitors that bind to allosteric sites on HIV-1 RT in a non-competitive manner and thereby disrupting the conformation of RT. Hence, they can act as potent inhibitors against HIV-1 RT. In present study, the key structural requirements for enhancing HIV-1 RT inhibitory activity were explored from combined docking and three-dimensional quantitative structure activity relationship (3D QSAR) protocols. Initially, multiple-receptor conformation docking (MRCD) was performed using a series of diaryl pyridine and pyrimidine derivatives into the active site of ten X-ray crystal structures and one NMR-resolved conformation of HIV-1 RT. Later, the dock poses obtained from docking were clustered and 3D QSAR models were developed using comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity index analysis (CoMSIA) methods. Finally, a robust model was established using cross-validation techniques and the robustness of the model was confirmed through high accuracy of q 2 loo of 0.843 and 0.682, r 2 ncv of 0.977 and 0.949, and r 2 pred of 0.702 and 0.690, respectively, for CoMFA and CoMSIA. Based on the outcome of the results, new pyrimidine derivatives having potential inhibitory against HIV-1 RT were designed.