Discovery of Potent Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase (sEH) Inhibitors by Pharmacophore-Based Virtual Screening

There is an increasing interest in the development of soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) inhibitors, which block the degradation of endogenous anti-inflammatory epoxyeicosatrienoic acids. Within this study, a set of pharmacophore models for sEH inhibitors was developed. The Specs database was virtually screened and a cell-free sEH activity assay was used for the biological investigation of virtual hits. In total, out of 48 tested compounds, 19 were sEH inhibitors with IC50 < 10 μM, representing a prospective true positive hit rate of 40%. Six of these compounds displayed IC50 values in the low nanomolar range. The most potent compound 21, a urea derivative, inhibited sEH with an IC50 = 4.2 nM. The applied approach also enabled the identification of diverse chemical scaffolds, e.g. the pyrimidinone derivative 29 (IC50 = 277 nM). The generated pharmacophore model set therefore represents a valuable tool for the selection of compounds for biological testing.