Computational evaluation of potent 2-(1H-imidazol-2-yl) pyridine derivatives as potential V600E-BRAF inhibitors

Abstract Background V600E-BRAF is a major protein target involved in various types of human cancers. However, the acquired resistance of the V600E-BRAF kinase to the vemurafenib and the side effects of other identified drugs initiate the search for efficient inhibitors. In the current paper, virtual docking screening combined with drug likeness and ADMET properties predictions were jointly applied to evaluate potent 2-(1H-imidazol-2-yl) pyridines as V600E-BRAF kinase inhibitors. Results Most of the studied compounds showed better docking scores and favorable interactions with theiV600E-BRAF target. Among the screened compounds, the two most potent (14 and 30) with good rerank scores (−124.079 and − 122.290) emerged as the most effective, and potent V600E-BRAF kinase inhibitors which performed better than vemurafenib (−116.174), an approved V600E-BRAF kinase inhibitor. Thus, the docking studies exhibited that these compounds have shown competing inhibition of V600E-BRAF kinase with vemurafenib at the active site and revealed better pharmacological properties based on Lipinski’s and Veber’s drug-likeness rules for oral bioavailability and ADMET properties. Conclusion The docking result, drug-likeness rules, and ADMET parameters identified compounds (14 and 30) as the best hits against V600E-BRAF kinase with better pharmacological properties. This suggests that these compounds may be developed as potent V600E-BRAF inhibitors.