Rational design of novel diketoacid-containing ferrocene inhibitors of HIV-1 integrase

Molecular interaction field, density functional, and docking studies of novel potential ferrocene inhibitors of HIV-1 integrase (IN) are reported. The high docking scores, analysis of the ligand-receptor interactions in the active site as well as the molecular interaction potential calculations at the binding site of the receptor indicate important features for novel HIV-1 IN inhibitors. We also confirm in this work a novel binding trench in HIV-1 integrase, recently reported in a theoretical work by other authors. This observation may be interesting since the lack of detailed structural information about IN-ligand interactions has hampered the design of IN inhibitors. Our proposed ligands are open to experimental synthesis and testing.