ALDH2, a key enzyme in the alcohol metabolism process, detoxifies several kinds of toxic small molecular aldehydes, which induce severe organ damages. The development of novel Alda-1 type ALDH2 activators was mostly relied on HTS but not rational design so far. To clarify the structure–activity relationship (SAR) of the skeleton of Alda-1 analogs by synthesis of the least number of analogs, we prepared 31 Alda-1 analogs and 3 isoflavone derivatives and evaluated for their ALDH2-activating activity. Among these, the ALDH2-activating activity of mono-halogen-substituted (Cl and Br) N-piperonylbenzamides 3b and 3 k, and non-aromatic amides 8a-8c, were 1.5–2.1 folds higher than that of Alda-1 at 20 μM. The relationship between binding affinity in computer aided molecular docking model and the ALDH2-activating activity assays were clarified as follows: for Alda-1 analogs, with the formation of halogen bonds, the enzyme-activating activity was found to follow a specific regression curve within the range between −5 kcal/mol and −4 kcal/mol. For isoflavone derivatives, the basic moiety on the B ring enhance the activating activity. These results provide a new direction of utilizing computer-aided modeling to design novel ALDH2 agonists in the future.

ALDH2是酒精代谢过程中的关键酶，可对几种有毒的小分子醛进行解毒，从而导致严重的器官损伤。迄今为止，新型Alda-1型ALDH2激活剂的开发主要依赖于HTS，而不是合理的设计。为了通过最少数量的类似物的合成来阐明Alda-1类似物的骨架的结构活性关系（SAR），我们制备了31个Alda-1类似物和3个异黄酮衍生物，并评估了其对ALDH2的激活活性。在这些中，的ALDH2激活活性单卤素取代的（Cl和Br）ñ -piperonylbenzamides 3B和3 K，和非芳族酰胺8A-8C在20μM时比Alda-1高1.5-2.1倍。阐明了计算机辅助分子对接模型中结合亲和力与ALDH2激活活性测定之间的关系：对于Alda-1类似物，随着卤素键的形成，发现酶激活活性遵循特定的回归曲线。范围在-5 kcal / mol和-4 kcal / mol之间。对于异黄酮衍生物，B环上的碱性部分可增强活化活性。这些结果为将来利用计算机辅助建模设计新型ALDH2激动剂提供了新的方向。