Conformation-independent QSAR study on human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) inhibitors

Abstract

Inhibition of HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) expression and function is required in several cancer treatments. Numerous compounds with very different molecular structures have been suggested as HER2 inhibitors. Here we perform quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analysis on 444 of such compounds to investigate the molecular properties that may influence its efficiency. Models based on 1D and 2D flexible molecular descriptors are proposed to develop simple models based solely on constitutional and topological molecular features. A large number of non-conformational descriptors (17974) was used to thoroughly explore the structural characteristics that influence the HER2 inhibitory activity. Three different approaches were explored using: 1) Molecular Descriptors, 2) Flexible Molecular Descriptors, and 3) Hybrid Descriptors. A QSAR model for HER2 inhibitors was successfully developed. Some properties such as electronegativity, aromatic character, and the presence of amino groups appear as molecular characteristics that may have influence in the HER2 inhibitory activity.