Author(s)

Gabriela Souza Fernandes¹, Michelle Bueno de Moura Pereira¹, Ana Cláudia Barbosa Marinho¹, Brisa Machado², Ana Carla Moreira², Matheus Puggina de Freitas³, Karen Luise Lang², João Eustáquio Antunes^2*

¹Department of Medicine, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Governador Valadares, Brazil.
²Department of Pharmacy, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Governador Valadares, Brazil.
³Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Lavras, Lavras, Brazil.

In silico pharmacokinetics studies can aid the search for molecules with potential ability to be drug candidates. In this paper, a number of quinazoline candidates for epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors—EGFR, important targets for the treatment of cancer, are computationally analyzed. The literature described that 69 quinazoline molecules were synthesized and the respective half maximum inhibitory concentrations (IC₅₀) were obtained. A bilinear parabolic model was built to investigate the druglikeness by correlating the corresponding lipophilicities, which can be represented by the ideal Log P , with the optimal biological activity in terms of pIC₅₀ values. Structural characteristics leading to improved pharmacokinetics parameters were then analyzed. Compound 56 exhibited the lowest IC₅₀ and, therefore, it had the highest ability to inhibit the EGFR. In the present work, the most potent inhibitor 56 is not calculated to be the most promising drug candidate, since it’s out of the parabolic model obtained due to a Log P above 5, which is not within the expected optimum range. Finally, this work is an example of computational prediction that an experimentally, highly active EGFR inhibitor can be unsuccessful as drug candidate because of pitfalls in pharmacokinetics parameters.

Cancer Treatment, Quinazoline, Inhibitors, Rational Drug Design, Pharmacokinetics

Fernandes, G. , Pereira, M. , Marinho, A. , Machado, B. , Moreira, A. , Freitas, M. , Lang, K. and Antunes, J. (2015) In Silico Pharmacokinetics Studies for Quinazolines Proposed as EGFR Inhibitors. Open Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 5, 106-115. doi: 10.4236/ojmc.2015.54007.