Identification of triazolo[4,5-b] pyrazine derivatives as hepatocyte growth factor receptor inhibitors through structure-activity relationships and molecular docking simulations

c-MET is a receptor tyrosine kinase and potential oncological target for cancer therapy. The activities of 1,2,3-triazolo[4,5-b] pyrazine series of c-MET inhibitors were analyzed according to the three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship and molecular docking methods. The results indicated that the hydrophobic and electrostatic fields play key roles in activity and QSAR model was reliable enough for activity prediction. Moreover, the docking results do validate the predicted 3D-QSAR scores, vital residues Asp1222, Asp1231, Met1160, Tyr1259 and Tyr1230 found in binding site. Four new c-MET inhibitor analogs designed in this Letter which are being currently synthesized by our laboratories. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.