In-silico activity prediction and docking studies of some flavonol derivatives as anti-prostate cancer agents based on Monte Carlo optimization

The QSAR models are employed to predict the anti-proliferative activity of 81 derivatives of flavonol against prostate cancer using the Monte Carlo algorithm based on the index of ideality of correlation (IIC) criterion. CORAL software is employed to design the QSAR models. The molecular structures of flavonols are demonstrated using the simplified molecular input line entry system (SMILES) notation. The models are developed with the hybrid optimal descriptors i.e. using both SMILES and hydrogen-suppressed molecular graph (HSG). The QSAR model developed for split 3 is selected as a prominent model ([Formula: see text] = 0.727, [Formula: see text] = 0.628, [Formula: see text] = 0.642, and [Formula: see text] =0.615). The model is interpreted mechanistically by identifying the characteristics responsible for the promoter of the increase or decrease. The structural attributes as promoters of increase of pIC(50) were aliphatic carbon atom connected to double-bound (C…=…, aliphatic oxygen atom connected to aliphatic carbon (O…C…), branching on aromatic ring (c…(…), and aliphatic nitrogen (N…). The pIC(50) of eight natural flavonols with pIC(50) more than 4.0, were predicted by the best model. The molecular docking is also performed for natural flavonols on the PC-3 cell line using the protein (PDB: 3RUK). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13065-023-00999-y.