Adenosine is an endogenous modulator exerting its functions through the activation of four adenosine receptor (AR) subtypes, termed A₁, A2A, A2B and A₃, which belong to the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily. The human A₃AR (hA₃AR) subtype is implicated in several cytoprotective functions. Therefore, hA₃AR modulators, and in particular agonists, are sought for their potential application as anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and cardioprotective agents. Structure-based molecular modeling techniques have been applied over the years to rationalize the structure-activity relationships (SARs) of newly emerged A₃AR ligands, guide the subsequent lead optimization, and interpret site-directed mutagenesis (SDM) data from a molecular perspective. In this review, we showcase selected modeling-based and guided strategies that were applied to elucidate the binding of agonists to the A₃AR and discuss the challenges associated with an accurate prediction of the receptor extracellular vestibule through homology modeling from the available X-ray templates.
Keywords: G protein-coupled receptor; adenosine receptor; agonist; docking; drug discovery; homology modeling; molecular dynamics; nucleoside; site-directed mutagenesis; structure-activity relationship; virtual screening.