Quantitative structure-activity relationship study of 2-arylsulfonyl-6-substituted benzonitriles as non-nucleoside...

The reverse transcriptase inhibition of HIV-1, the most common form of HIV, by non-nucleoside 2-arylsulfonyl-6-substituted benzonitriles is analysed through Fujita-Ban and Hansch approaches. The analyses have helped to ascertain the role of different substituents in explaining the observed inhibitory actions of these compounds. From both approaches it appeared that SO2 instead of SO or S at X; and NH2 instead of F at Y (see Figure 1) are advantageous to improving the activity of a compound against HIV-1. This in turn leads to the suggestion that the 2-arylsulfonyl-6-aminobenzonitrile scaffold is the only appropriate structural entity that may further result into potential compounds. Further, the compounds having a OMe substituent at the orthoposition, the bulkier substituents at meta-positions and "no" substituent at para-position of 2-arylsulfonyl moiety are beneficial in raising the activity. The two quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analyses, differing in parametric approach, therefore, provided the grounds for rationalizing the substituent selection in designing more potent compounds of the series.