Matrix metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13) plays a key role in the degradation of type II collagen in cartilage and bone in osteoarthritis.[1] Nonselective inhibition of different MMPs by the early inhibitors appears to be the reason for their toxicity and limited efficacy.[2] Recent findings suggest that selective inhibition of MMP-13 could avoid toxicity and that non-zinc-chelating MMP inhibitors appear to be the most promising agents toward achieving selectivity, since the allosteric binding sites are not shared by different MMPs. Biochemical, histological and clinical models support this findings. [1b,3] Therefore, effective MMP-13 inhibition would be a novel, disease-modifying therapy for the treatment of osteoarthritis.Our recent efforts in the search for new agents with antidegenerative activity, as evaluated in human chondrocyte cultures stimulated by IL-1b, have resulted in the discovery of a series of heteroarylimino-4-thiazolidinones that significantly inhibit MMPs and other inflammatory mediators.[4] Among these, a potent and selective MMP-13 inhibitor has been identified (MMP-13, IC 50 = 0.036 mm; MMP-3, IC 50 > 100 mm) based upon a 2-(benzo [d]isothiazol-3-ylimino)-5-(4-methoxybenzylidene)thiazolidin-4-one scaffold (1; Figure 1). The presence of the electron-donating, moderately hydrophilic and bulky methoxy group at the benzylidene para position in compound 1 afforded the highest improvement in MMP-13 inhibition among all the heteroarylimino analogues of the series. This prompted us to explore the structure-activity relationship within the three positional methoxybenzylidene isomers 1-3 and evaluate the binding mode between compounds 1-3 and MMP-13 by molecular modeling.Herein, we describe the synthesis, the in vitro evaluation and the docking studies of compounds 1-3. The synthesis of the studied compounds was accomplished as illustrated in Scheme 1. Target compounds 1-3 were prepared from 2-(benzo[d]isothiazol-3-ylimino)thiazolidin-4-one (a; Scheme 1), recently synthesized in our laboratory, by reaction with the appropriately substituted aryl aldehyde according to previously reported protocols.[5]MMP-13 inhibition (IC 50 ) was investigated by evaluating the ability of compounds 1-3 to prevent the hydrolysis of the appropriate fluorescence-quenched peptide substrate.[6] To get a deeper insight into the mechanism of chondroprotective action of compounds 1-3, their effect in cultures of human chondrocytes, stimulated by IL-1b, was evaluated by determining cell viability, nitric oxide (NO) and glycosaminoglycan (GAG) levels.[1c] In addition, the antioxidant properties of the compounds were tested by means of an oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay and by determining the free radical scavenging ability of the molecules through measuring the extent of their interaction with the stable free radical 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). [7] As shown in Table 1, modification of the methoxy substituent position afforded a significant decrease in the MMP-13 inhibitory activity of compounds 2 and 3 (IC...