Objective: The objective of the current study was to elucidate the 3D pharmacophoric features of benzothiadiazine derivatives that are crucial for inhibiting Hepatitis C virus (HCV) Non-structural protein 5B (NS5B) and quantifying the features by building an atom based 3D quantitative structure-activity relationship (3D QSAR) model.Methods: Generation of QSAR model was carried out using PHASE 3.3.Results: A five-point pharmacophore model with two hydrogen bond acceptors, one negative ionization potential and two aromatic rings (AANRR) was found to be common among a maximum number of benzothiadiazine based NS5B inhibitors. A statistically significant 3D QSAR model was obtained from AANRR.6 which had correlation-coefficient (R2) value of 0.924, cross-validated correlation-coefficient (Q2) of 0.774, high Fisher ratio of 138 and low root mean square standard error (RMSE=0.29). There is another parameter, Pearson’s R, its value emphasizes correlation between predicted and observed activities of the test set. For the current model, Pearson’s R-value is 0.90, hence underlining the good quality of the model. The present study suggests that nitrogen atom of benzothiadiazine sulfamide ring, oxyacetamide group attached to C7 carbon of benzothiadiazine and sulfonamide oxygens are crucial for NS5B inhibitory activity. Prediction of activities of hit drugs generated in earlier research suggests that Aprepitant (Phase predicted activity: 6.9) could be a potential NS5B inhibitor.Conclusion: This 3D QSAR model developed was statistically good and can be used to predict the activities of newly designed NS5B inhibitors and virtual screening as well. Predict the activities of newly designed NS5B inhibitors and virtual screening as well.
Correction: Xie, H.; et al. 3D QSAR Studies, Pharmacophore Modeling and Virtual Screening on a Series of Steroidal Aromatase Inhibitors. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2014, 15, 20927–20947
