In Silico Assessment of Enaminone–Sulfanilamides as Potential Carbonic Anhydrase II Inhibitors: Molecular Docking and ADMET Prediction

Carbonic anhydrases (CAs) are a group of zinc-containing enzymes involved in many physiological processes through their role in the maintenance of the equilibrium between bicarbonate and CO2 levels. Human carbonic anhydrases (hCAs) are recognized as important drug targets due to their major implication in the development of diseases including cancer. Sulfanilamide derivatives have been widely studied and have shown remarkable efficiency in inhibiting carbonic anhydrases, with the presence of SO2NH2 in their structure. Therefore, the sulfonamide moiety is considered as the leading scaffold in the search for new hCA inhibitors. Moreover, the introduction of an enaminone to sulfonamide-based CA inhibitors showed an enhancement of inhibitory activity. In this context, we were interested in the in silico investigation of benzenesulfonamide derivatives containing β-enaminone that were synthesized from dicarbonyl compounds and sulfanilamide under microwave irradiation. The in silico assessment includes a molecular docking simulation against hCA II (PDB: 2AW1). The docked ligands showed good docking score values (−8.099 and −7.053 kcal.mol−1), which indicates a good stability of the studied compounds within the active site. Further, significant interactions with the residues of the active site were observed, including metal coordination with Zn 262, an H-bond with Thr 199, and pi–pi stacking with the side chain of His94, which are considered as the key interactions for CA inhibition. A complementary in silico study that involved ADMET prediction was performed to learn more about the pharmacokinetic properties and the toxicity of the products in order to comprehend their ability to become drug-candidates.