3D‐QSAR pharmacophore modeling, virtual screening, molecular docking, MD simulations, in vitro and in vivo studies to identify potential anti‐hyperplasia drugs

Abstract

Psoriasis is a common immune‐mediated skin condition characterized by aberrant keratinocytes and cell proliferation. The purpose of this study was to explore the FDA‐approved drugs by 3D‐QSAR pharmacophore model and evaluate their efficiency by in‐silico, in vitro, and in vivo psoriasis animal model. A 3D‐QSAR pharmacophore model was developed by utilizing HypoGen algorithm using the structural features of 48 diaryl derivatives with diverse molecular patterns. The model was validated by a test set of 27 compounds, by cost analysis method, and Fischer's randomization test. The correlation coefficient of the best model (Hypo2) was 0.9601 for the training set while it was 0.805 for the test set. The selected model was taken as a 3D query for the virtual screening of over 3000 FDA‐approved drugs. Compounds mapped with the pharmacophore model were further screened through molecular docking. The hits that showed the best docking results were screened through in silico skin toxicity approach. Top five hits were selected for the MD simulation studies. Based on MD simulations results, the best two hit molecules, that is, ebastine (Ebs) and mebeverine (Mbv) were selected for in vitro and in vivo antioxidant studies performed in mice. TNF‐α and COX pro‐inflammatory mediators, biochemical assays, histopathological analyses, and immunohistochemistry observations confirmed the anti‐inflammatory response of the selected drugs. Based on these findings, it appeared that Ebs can effectively treat psoriasis‐like skin lesions and down‐regulate inflammatory responses which was consistent with docking predictions and could potentially be employed for further research on inflammation‐related skin illnesses such as psoriasis.