Abstract

The binding modes of 42 oxadiazole derivates inside glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK3 were determined using docking experiments; thus, the preferred active conformations of these inhibitors are proposed. We found that these compounds adopt a scorpion-shaped conformation and they accept a hydrogen bond (HB) from the residue Val135 of the GSK3 ATP-binding site hinge region. In addition, quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models were constructed to explain the trend of the GSK3 inhibitory activities for the studied compounds. In a first approach, three-dimensional (3D) vectors were calculated using docking conformations and, by using multiple-linear regression, we assessed that GETAWAY vectors were able to describe the reported biological activities. In other QSAR approach, SMILES-based optimal descriptors were calculated. The best model included three-SMILES elements SSS leading to the identification of key molecular features that contribute to a high GSK3 inhibitory activity.