Identification of novel urease inhibitors: pharmacophore modeling, virtual screening and molecular docking studies

Abstract

Pharmacophore modeling and atom-based three-dimensional quantitative structure–activity relationship (3D-QSAR) have been developed on N-acylglycino- and hippurohydroxamic acid derivatives, which are known potential inhibitors of urease. This is followed by virtual screening and ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity) studies on a large library of known drugs in order to get lead molecules as Helicobacter pylori urease inhibitors. A suitable three-featured pharmacophore model comprising one H-bond acceptor and two H-bond donor features (ADD.10) has been found to be the best QSAR model. An external library of compounds (∼3000 molecules), pre-filtered using Lipinski’s rule of five, has been further screened using the pharmacophore model ADD.10. By analyzing the fitness of the hits with respect to the pharmacophore model and their binding interaction inside the urease active site, four molecules have been predicted to be extremely good urease inhibitors. Two of these have significant potential and should be taken up for further drug-designing process.

Keywords:

• Urease
• hippurohydroxamic acids
• QSAR
• virtual screening
• pharmacophore

Acknowledgements

Richa Arora and Upasana Issar thank the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the University Grants Commission (UGC), respectively, for Junior and Senior Research Fellowships.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.