QSAR and Pharmacophore Modeling of Nitrogen Heterocycles as Potent Human N-Myristoyltransferase (Hs-NMT) Inhibitors

Abstract

N-myristoyltransferase (NMT) is an important eukaryotic monomeric enzyme which has emerged as an attractive target for developing a drug for cancer, leishmaniasis, ischemia-reperfusion injury, malaria, inflammation, etc. In the present work, statistically robust machine leaning models (QSAR (Quantitative Structure–Activity Relationship) approach) for Human NMT (Hs-NMT) inhibitory has been performed for a dataset of 309 Nitrogen heterocycles screened for NMT inhibitory activity. Hundreds of QSAR models were derived. Of these, the model 1 and 2 were chosen as they not only fulfil the recommended values for a good number of validation parameters (e.g., R2 = 0.77–0.79, Q2LMO = 0.75–0.76, CCCex = 0.86–0.87, Q2-F3 = 0.74–0.76, etc.) but also provide useful insights into the structural features that sway the Hs-NMT inhibitory activity of Nitrogen heterocycles. That is, they have an acceptable equipoise of descriptive and predictive qualities as per Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines. The developed QSAR models identified a good number of molecular descriptors like solvent accessible surface area of all atoms having specific partial charge, absolute surface area of Carbon atoms, etc. as important features to be considered in future optimizations. In addition, pharmacophore modeling has been performed to get additional insight into the pharmacophoric features, which provided additional results.