|  ACTA FAC 
    MED NAISS 2014;31(2):95-103 | 
Original article
UDC:547.587.51:616.98:578.828
DOI:10.2478/afmnai-2014-0011
Monte Carlo Method Based QSAR Modeling of Coumarin Derivates as Potent HIV-1 Integrase Inhibitors
and Molecular Docking Studies of Selected 4-phenyl Hydroxycoumarins
Jovana Veselinović1, Aleksandar Veselinović2, Andrey Toropov3, Alla Toropova3, Ivana Damnjanović1, Goran Nikolić2
1University of Niš, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pharmacy, Serbia
2Univerity of Niš, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Chemistry, Serbia
3IRCCS-Instituto di Ricerche 
Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Milano, Italy
SUMMARY
In search for new and promising coumarin compounds as HIV-1 integrase 
inhibitors, chemoinformatic methods like quantitative structure-activity 
relationships (QSAR) modeling and molecular docking have an important role since 
they can predict desired activity and propose molecule binding to enzyme. The 
aim of this study was building of QSAR models for coumarin derivatives as HIV-1 
integrase inhibitors with the application of Monte Carlo method. SMILES notation 
was used to represent the molecular structure and for defining optimal 
SMILES-based descriptors. Molecular docking into rigid enzyme active site with 
flexible molecule was performed. Computational results indicated that this 
approach can satisfactorily predict the desired activity with very good 
statistical significance. For best built model statistical parameters were: a) 
3’ Processing activity: R2=0.9980 and Q2=0.9977 for training set and R2=0.9788 
for test set and b) Integration activity: R2=0.9999 and Q2=0.9998 for training 
set and R2= 0.9213 for test set. Built QSAR models were applied to selected 
4-phenyl hydroxycoumarins for calculating desired activity and for HIV-1 
integrase inhibition estimation. Additionally, molecular docking study was 
performed to a newly identified pocket in the HIV-1 integrase enzyme structure 
for determination of selected 4-phenyl hydroxycoumarins binding mode. Monte 
Carlo method proved to be an efficient approach to build up a robust model for 
estimating HIV-1 integrase inhibition of coumarin compounds. Based on QSAR and 
molecular docking studies, 4-phenyl hydroxycoumarins can be considered as 
promising model compounds for developing new HIV-1 integrase inhibitors. 
Key words: coumarins, HIV-1 integrase inhibition, QSAR, molecular docking