A Comparative Study on Selective PPAR Modulators through Quantitative Structure-activity Relationship, Pharmacophore and Docking Analyses

Background: Metabolic syndrome is a matrix of different metabolic disorders which are the leading cause of death in human beings. Peroxysome proliferated activated receptor (PPAR) is a nuclear receptor involved in metabolism of fats and glucose. Objective: In order to explore structural requirements for selective PPAR modulators to control lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, the multi-cheminformatics studies have been performed. Methods: In silico modeling studies have been performed on a diverse set of PPAR modulators through quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR), pharmacophore mapping and docking studies. Results: It is observed that the presence of an amide fragment (–CONHRPh) has a detrimental effect while an aliphatic ether linkage has a beneficial effect on PPARα modulation. On the other hand, the presence of an amide fragment has a positive effect on PPARδ modulation, but the aliphatic ether linkage and substituted aromatic ring in the molecular scaffold are very much essential for imparting potent and selective PPARγ modulation. Negative ionizable features (i.e. polar fragments) must be present in PPARδ and α modulators, but a hydrophobic feature is the prime requirement for PPARγ modulation. Conclusion: Here, the essential structural features have been explored for selective modulation of each subtype of PPAR in order to design new modulators with improved activity/selectivity.