Molecular modeling studies, synthesis, and biological evaluation of Plasmodium falciparum enoyl-acyl carrier protein reductase (PfENR) inhibitors

• Published in: Molecular diversity Vol. 13; no. 4; pp. 501 - 517
• Main Authors: Morde, Varun A, Shaikh, Mushtaque S, Pissurlenkar, Raghuvir R. S, Coutinho, Evans C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands 01.11.2009; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: 3D-QSAR; Antimalarial; Antimalarials - chemical synthesis; Antimalarials - chemistry; Antimalarials - pharmacology; Bacteria; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Catalytic Domain; Chemical synthesis; CoMFA; CoMSIA; Docking; Enoyl-(Acyl-Carrier-Protein) Reductase (NADH) - antagonists & inhibitors; Enoyl-(Acyl-Carrier-Protein) Reductase (NADH) - chemistry; Enzyme Inhibitors - chemical synthesis; Enzyme Inhibitors - chemistry; Enzyme Inhibitors - pharmacology; Full Length Paper; Life Sciences; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; Malaria; Models, Molecular; Molecular structure; Organic Chemistry; Pharmaceutical sciences; Pharmacy; Plasmodium falciparum; Plasmodium falciparum - drug effects; Plasmodium falciparum - enzymology; Polymer Sciences; Spectrophotometry, Infrared; Static Electricity; 3D-QSAR; Antimalarial; Docking; CoMFA; CoMSIA
• ISSN: 1381-1991; 1573-501X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11030-009-9141-0

The search for new antimalarial agents is necessary as current drugs in the market become vulnerable due to the emergence of resistance strains of Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum). The biosynthetic pathway for fatty acids has been recognized and validated as an important drug target in P.falciparum. One of the important enzymes in this pathway that has a determinant role in completing the cycles of chain elongation is Enoyl-ACP reductase (ENR) also popularly known as FabI. In this paper we report the design, synthesis, and microbial evaluation of inhibitors of Plasmodium enoyl reductase (PfENR). The search for inhibitors involved a virtual screening of the iResearch database with docking simulations. One of the hits was selected and modified to optimize its binding to PfENR; this resulted in the development of analogues of N-benzylidene-4-phenyl-1,3-thiazol-2-amine. The activity of these analogues was predicted from comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) models constructed from a dataset of 43 known inhibitors of PfENR. The most promising molecules were synthesized and their structures characterized by spectroscopic techniques. The molecules were screened for in vitro antimalarial activity by whole-cell assay method. Two molecules, viz. VRC-007 and VRC-009, were found to be active at 4.67 and 7.01 μM concentrations, respectively.