Combined Ligand and Structure Based Approaches Towards Developing Novel Renin Inhibitors for the Treatment of Hypertension

Hypertension is considered as the predominant risk factor for the onset of Cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the elder population. The chronic activation of Renin Angiotensin System (RAS) is considered as the primary causative factor for the inception of hypertension in geriatric population. Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) is a highly explored druggable target in the context of hypertension since this enzyme catalyses the conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II, a potent vasoconstrictor. But clinical trials conducted on ACE inhibitors reported their incompetence in the effective treatment of hypertension. Hence, recent studies are focussing on renin, which is a central component of RAS in the regulation of blood pressure. The present study focuses on the elucidation of physicochemical properties of chemical compounds essential for renin inhibition and identification of novel renin inhibitors possessing enhanced potency as well as bioavailability. We have employed Molecular Field Topology Analysis (MFTA) as well as Structure Based Drug Design (SBDD) approaches for the accomplishment of above-mentioned objectives. MFTA approach were piloted on 45 indole-3-carboxamide derivatives by elucidating the significance of charge distribution as well as molecular size of chemical species in eliciting renin inhibition. Optimal model was obtained with Nf = 3, r² = 0.81 , Q² = 0.65. Molecular docking, atom-based binding free energy contributions and bioavailability assessments were carried out to identify most potent lead molecule among 45 compounds reported for renin inhibition. Further, new derivative molecules were predicted for the best lead molecule by employing chemical space exploration. All datasets, descriptor values, QSAR models for predictions usage and plots will be available in https://github.com/giribio/agingdata