3D-QSAR of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors: Functional Group Interaction Energy Descriptors for Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships Study of ACE Inhibitors

A new set of functional group interaction energy descriptors relevant to the ACE (Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme) inhibitory peptide, QSAR (Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships), is presented. The functional group interaction energies approximate the charged interactions and distances between functional groups in molecules. The effective energies of the computationally derived geometries are useful parameters for deriving 3D-QSAR models, especially in the absence of experimentally known active site conformation. ACE is a regulatory zinc protease in the renin-angiotensin system. Therapeutic inhibition of this enzyme has proven to be a very effective treatment for the management of hypertension. The non bond interaction energy values among functional groups of six-feature of ACE inhibitory peptides were used as descriptor terms and analyzed for multivariate correlation with ACE inhibition activity. The functional group interaction energy descriptors used in the regression analysis were obtained by a series of inhibitor structures derived from molecular mechanics and semi-empirical calculations. The descriptors calculated using electrostatic and steric fields from the precisely defined functional group were sufficient to explain the biological activity of inhibitor. Application of the descriptors to the inhibition of ACE indicates that the derived QSAR has good predicting ability and provides insight into the mechanism of enzyme inhibition. The method, functional group interaction energy analysis, is expected to be applicable to predict enzyme inhibitory activity of the rationally designed inhibitors.