Visual Characterization and Diversity Quantification of Chemical Libraries: 2. Analysis and Selection of Size-Independent, Subspace-Specific Diversity Indices

High Throughput Screening (HTS) is a standard technique widely used to find hit compounds in drug discovery projects. The high costs associated with such experiments have highlighted the need to carefully design screening libraries in order to avoid wasting resources. Molecular diversity is an established concept that has been used to this end for many years. In this article, a new approach to quantify the molecular diversity of screening libraries is presented. The approach is based on the Delimited Reference Chemical Subspace (DRCS) methodology, a new method that can be used to delimit the densest subspace spanned by a reference library in a reduced 2D continuous space. A total of 22 diversity indices were implemented or adapted to this methodology, which is used here to remove outliers and obtain a relevant cell-based partition of the subspace. The behavior of these indices was assessed and compared in various extreme situations and with respect to a set of theoretical rules that a diversity function should satisfy when libraries of different sizes have to be compared. Some gold standard indices are found inappropriate in such a context, while none of the tested indices behave perfectly in all cases. Five DRCS-based indices accounting for different aspects of diversity were finally selected, and a simple framework is proposed to use them effectively. Various libraries have been profiled with respect to more specific subspaces, which further illustrate the interest of the method

Identification of New Nonsteroidal RORα Ligands; Related Structure–Activity Relationships and Docking Studies

A high throughput screen was developed to identify novel, nonsteroidal RORα agonists. Among the validated hit compounds, the 4-(4-(benzyloxy)­phenyl)-5-carbonyl-2-oxo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidine scaffold was the most prominent. Among the numerous analogues tested, compounds <b>8</b> and <b>9</b> showed the highest activity. Key structure–activity relationships (SAR) were established, where benzyl and urea moieties were both identified as very important elements to maintain the activity. Most notably, the SAR were consistent with the binding mode of the compound <b>8</b> (<i>S</i>-isomer) in the RORα docking model that was developed in this program. As predicted by the model, the urea moiety is engaged in the formation of key hydrogen bonds with the backbone of Tyr380 and Asp382. The benzyl group is located in a wide hydrophobic pocket. The structural relationships reported in this letter will help in further optimization of this compound series and will provide novel synthetic probes helpful for elucidation of complex RORα physiopathology