Pharmacophore Modelling and 3D-QSAR Studies on N(3)-Phenylpyrazinones as Corticotropin-Releasing Factor 1 Receptor Antagonists

Pharmacophore modelling-based virtual screening of compound is a ligand-based approach and is useful when the 3D structure of target is not available but a few known active compounds are known. Pharmacophore mapping studies were undertaken for a set of 50 N(3)-phenylpyrazinones possessing Corticotropin-releasing Factor 1 (CRF 1) antagonistic activity. Six point pharmacophores with two hydrogen bond acceptors, one hydrogen bond donor, two hydrophobic regions, and one aromatic ring as pharmacophoric features were developed. Amongst them the pharmacophore hypothesis AADHHR.47 yielded a statistically significant 3D-QSAR model with 0.803 as R (2) value and was considered to be the best pharmacophore hypothesis. The developed pharmacophore model was externally validated by predicting the activity of test set molecules. The squared predictive correlation coefficient of 0.91 was observed between experimental and predicted activity values of test set molecules. The geometry and features of pharmacophore were expected to be useful for the design of selective CRF 1 receptor antagonists.