3D-QSAR Studies and Molecular Docking on [5-(4-amino-1H-benzoimidazol-2-yl)-furan-2-yl]-phosphonic Acid Derivatives as Fructose-1,6-biphophatase Inhibitors

Fructose-1,6-biphophatase has been regarded as a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). 3D-QSAR and docking studies were performed on a series of [5-(4-amino-1H-benzoimidazol-2-yl)-furan-2-yl]-phosphonic acid derivatives as fructose-1,6-biphophatase inhibitors. The CoMFA and CoMSIA models using thirty-seven molecules in the training set gave r_cv² values of 0.614 and 0.598, r² values of 0.950 and 0.928, respectively. The external validation indicated that our CoMFA and CoMSIA models possessed high predictive powers with r₀² values of 0.994 and 0.994, r_m² values of 0.751 and 0.690, respectively. Molecular docking studies revealed that a phosphonic group was essential for binding to the receptor, and some key features were also identified. A set of forty new analogues were designed by utilizing the results revealed in the present study, and were predicted with significantly improved potencies in the developed models. The findings can be quite useful to aid the designing of new fructose-1,6-biphophatase inhibitors with improved biological response.