IJMS, Vol. 20, Pages 4090: Discovery of New Inhibitors of Transforming Growth Factor-Beta Type 1 Receptor by Utilizing Docking and Structure-Activity Relationship Analysis (International Journal of Molecular Sciences)

The transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) plays an important role in pathological fibrosis and cancer transformation. Therefore, the inhibition of the TGF-β signaling pathway has therapeutic potential in the treatment of cancer. In this study, the binding modes between 47 molecules with a pyrrolotriazine-like backbone structure and transforming growth factor-beta type 1 receptor (TβR1) were simulated by molecular docking using Discovery Studio software, and their structure–activity relationships were analyzed. On the basis of the analysis of the binding modes of ligands in the active site and the structure–activity relationships, 29,254 new compounds were designed for virtual screening. According to the aforementioned analyses and Lipinski’s rule of five, five new compounds (CQMU1901–1905) with potential activity were screened through molecular docking. Among them, CQMU1905 is an attractive molecule composed of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP), and 5-azacytosine. Interestingly, 5-FU, 6-MP, and 5-azacytidine are often used as anti-metabolic agents in cancer treatment. Compared with existing compounds, CQMU1901–1905 can interact with target proteins more effectively and have good potential for modification, making them worthy of further study.