Molecular Modeling and Evaluation of Novel Dibenzopyrrole Derivatives as Telomerase Inhibitors and Potential Drug for Cancer Therapy

IEEE/ACM Trans Comput Biol Bioinform. 2014 Nov-Dec;11(6):1196-207. doi: 10.1109/TCBB.2014.2326860.

Abstract

During previous years, many studies on synthesis, as well as on anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial activities of the pyrazole derivatives have been described. Certain pyrazole derivatives exhibit important pharmacological activities and have proved to be useful template in drug research. Considering importance of pyrazole template, in current work the series of novel inhibitors were designed by replacing central ring of acridine with pyrazole ring. These heterocyclic compounds were proposed as a new potential base for telomerase inhibitors. Obtained dibenzopyrrole structure was used as a novel scaffold structure and extension of inhibitors was done by different functional groups. Docking of newly designed compounds in the telomerase active site (telomerase catalytic subunit TERT) was carried out. All dibenzopyrrole derivatives were evaluated by three docking programs: CDOCKER, Ligandfit docking (Scoring Functions) and AutoDock. Compound C_9g, C_9k and C_9l performed best in comparison to all designed inhibitors during the docking in all methods and in interaction analysis. Introduction of pyrazole and extension of dibenzopyrrole in compounds confirm that such compound may act as potential telomerase inhibitors.

MeSH terms

  • Antineoplastic Agents / chemistry*
  • Antineoplastic Agents / metabolism
  • Carbazoles / chemistry*
  • Carbazoles / metabolism
  • Drug Discovery
  • Enzyme Inhibitors / chemistry*
  • Enzyme Inhibitors / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Molecular Docking Simulation*
  • Telomerase / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Telomerase / chemistry*
  • Telomerase / metabolism

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Carbazoles
  • Enzyme Inhibitors
  • carbazole
  • TERT protein, human
  • Telomerase