Vasorelaxant effect of flavonoids through calmodulin inhibition: Ex vivo, in vitro, and in silico approaches

In our search for potential antihypertensive agents, a series of structurally-related flavonoids was screened. Ex vivo and in vitro biological evaluations indicated that compounds 1-7 displayed an important vasorelaxant effect on the endothelium-intact (E+) and -denuded (E−) aortic rings test. Their in vitro anti-calmodulin (CaM) properties were determined by means of the inhibitory effect on the activation of the calmodulin-sensitive cAMP phosphodiesterase (PDE1) assay. Molecular modeling experiments were also performed in order to explore the probable binding site of 1-7 with CaM, and the results indicated that they could bind to the protein in the same pocket as trifluoperazine (TFP), a well-known CaM inhibitor.