Theoretical study of GSK-3α: neural networks QSAR studies for the design of new inhibitors using 2D descriptors.

Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) targets encompass proteins implicated in AD and neurological disorders. The functions of GSK-3 and its implication in various human diseases have triggered an active search for potent and selective GSK-3 inhibitors. In this sense, QSAR could play an important role in studying these GSK-3 inhibitors. For this reason, we developed QSAR models for GSK-3α, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and artificial neural networks (ANNs) from nearly 50,000 cases with more than 700 different GSK-3α inhibitors obtained from ChEMBL database server; in total we used more than 20,000 different molecules to develop the QSAR models. The model correctly classified 237 out of 275 active compounds (86.2%) and 14,870 out of 15,970 non-active compounds (93.2%) in the training series. The overall training performance was 93.0%. Validation of the model was carried out using an external predicting series. In these series, the model classified correctly 458 out of 549 (83.4%) compounds and 29,637 out of 31,927 non-active compounds (83.4%). The overall predictability performance was 92.7%. In this study, we propose three types of non-linear ANN as alternative to already existing models, such as LDA. Linear neural network: LNN: 236:236-1-1:1 which had an overall training performance of 96% proved to be the best model. In addition, we did a study of the different fragments of the molecules of the database to see which fragments had more influence in the activity. This can help design new inhibitors of GSK-3α. This study reports the attempts to calculate, within a unified framework probabilities of GSK-3α inhibitors against different molecules found in the literature.