Dihydropyridopyrazinones and Dihydropteridinones as Corticotropin-Releasing Factor-1 Receptor Antagonists: Structure-Activity Relationships and Computational Modeling
The CRF antagonist pharmacophore is a heterocyclic ring bearing a critical hydrogen-bond acceptor nitrogenand an orthogonal aromatic ring. CRFR1 antagonists have shown a 40-fold and 200-fold loss in potencyagainst the CRFR1 H199V and M276I mutant receptors, suggesting key interactions with these residues.We have derived a two component computational model that correlates CRFR1 binding affinity within thereported series to antagoinst/H199 complexation energy and M276 hydrophobic contacts.