Three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationships (3D-QSAR) of antidiabetic thiazolidinediones

Thiazolidine-2,4-diones (TZDs) are novel insulin resistance releasing compounds that serve as orally active antidiabetic agents. Many TZDs have been synthesized and evaluated by in vivo screening for over 20 years. Recently, TZDs have been found to be selective agonists of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-y (PPAR-gamm), which is believed to work in the regulation of insulin resistance. This paper reports our efforts for the pharmacophore modeling study through 3D (three-dimensional) structure-activity relationship of TZDs to gain an insight into their molecular mechanism as well as the relation between antihyperglycemic and PPAR-gamma agonistic activities. The modeling study was carried out by conformational analysis along with the Apex-3D QSAR method to identify molecular features common to a series of 7 selected TZDs. Although the number of compounds included in the study was rather low, the variations in the activities were nicely elucidated with 3D-site specific physiochemical parameters significantly.