Correlation of biological activity with active site binding modes of geminal disulfone HIV-1 integrase inhibitors

Binding modes of a series of potent geminal disulfone-containing HIV-1 integrase inhibitors were investigated using AutoDock 3.0. Two major conformations were shared for this series of compounds: a "U-shaped" conformation and an "L-shaped" conformation. The data presented suggest that the U-shaped conformer may be the more biologically relevant conformation and that the design of molecules that are structurally biased in that conformation could lead to more potent analogues.