The structures of a large number of HIV-1 integrase inhibitors have in common two aryl units separated by a central linker. Frequently at least one of these aryl moieties must contain 1,2-dihydroxy substituents in order to exhibit high inhibitory potency. The ability of o-dihydroxy-containing species to undergo in situ oxidation to reactive quinones presents a potential limitation to the utility of such compounds. The recent report of tetrameric 4-hydroxycoumarin-derived inhibitor 5 provided a lead example of an inhibitor which does not contain the catechol moiety. Compound 5 represents a large, highly complex yet symmetrical molecule. It was the purpose of the present study to determine the critical components of 5 and if possible to simplify its structure while maintaining potency. In the present study, dissection of tetrameric 5 (IC50 = 1.5 microM) into its constituent parts showed that the minimum active pharmacophore consisted of a coumarin dimer containing an aryl substituent on the central linker methylene. However, in the simplest case in which the central linker aryl unit consisted of a phenyl ring (compound 8, IC50 = 43 microM), a significant reduction in potency resulted by removing two of the original four coumarin units. Replacement of this central phenyl ring by more extended aromatic systems having higher lipophilicity improved potency, as did the addition of 7-hydroxy substituents to the coumarin rings. Combining these latter two modifications resulted in compounds such as 3,3'-(2-naphthalenomethylene)bis[4,7-dihydroxycoumarin] (34, IC50 = 4.2 microM) which exhibited nearly the full potency of the parent tetramer 5 yet were structurally much simpler.

Seventeen lichen acids comprising despides, depsidones, and their synthetic derivatives have been examined for their inhibitory activity against HIV-1 integrase, and two pharmacophores associated with inhibition of this enzyme have been identified. A search of the NCI 3D database of approximately 200,000 structures yielded some 800 compounds which contain one or the other pharmacophore. Forty-two of these compounds were assayed for HIV-1 integrase inhibition, and of these, 27 had inhibitory IC50 values of less than 100 microM; 15 were below 50 microM. Several of these compounds were also examined for their activity against HIV-2 integrase and mammalian topoisomerase I.

Starting from a known inhibitor of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) integrase (IN); caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), a putative three-point pharmacophore for binding of inhibitors to IN was derived. This pharmacophore was used to search the National Cancer Institute three-dimensional (3D) structural database. Out of the open, nonproprietary part of this database, comprising approximately 200000 compounds, 267 structures were found to match the pharmacophore in at least one conformation, and 60 of those were tested in an in vitro assay against HIV-1 IN. Out of these, 19 were found to inhibit both the 3'-processing and strand transfer of IN at micromolar concentrations. In order to test the validity of this pharmacophore, a small 3D database of 152 published IN inhibitors was built. A search in this database yielded a statistically significant correlation of the presence of this pharmacophore and the potency of the compounds. An automated pharmacophore identification procedure performed on this set of compounds provided additional support for the importance of this pharmacophore for binding of inhibitors to IN and hinted at a possible second pharmacophore. The role of aromatic moieties in the binding of ligands to HIV-1 IN through interactions with divalent metal cations, which are known to be necessary for activity of the enzyme, was explored in ab initio calculations.