3D-QSAR and molecular fragment replacement study on diaminopyrimidine and pyrrolotriazine ALK inhibitors

Over expression of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) has been found in many types of cancer, and ALK is a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of cancer. To obtain new potent inhibitors of ALK, we conducted lead optimization using 3D-QSAR modeling and molecular docking investigation of 2,4-diaminopyrimidines and 2,7-disubstituted-pyrrolo[2,1-f][1,2,4]triazine-based compounds. Three favorable 3D-QSAR models (CoMFA with q2, 0.555; r2, 0.939; CoMSIA with q2, 0.625; r2, 0.974; Topomer CoMFA with q2, 0.557; r2 0.756) have been developed to predict the biological activity of novel compounds. Topomer Search was utilized for virtual screening to obtain suitable fragments. The novel compounds generated by molecular fragment replacement (MFR) were evaluated by Topomer CoMFA prediction, Glide (docking) and further evaluated with CoMFA and CoMSIA prediction. 25 novel 2,7-disubstituted-pyrrolo[2,1-f][1,2,4]triazine derivatives as potential ALK inhibitors were finally obtained. In this paper, a combination of CoMFA, CoMSIA and Topomer CoMFA could obtain favorable 3D-QSAR models and suitable fragments for ALK inhibitors optimization. The work flow which comprised 3D-QSAR modeling, Topomer Search, MFR, molecular docking and evaluating criteria could be applied to de novo drug design and the resulted compounds initiate us to further optimize and design new potential ALK inhibitors.