molecules Article Study on Structure Activity Relationship of Natural Flavonoids against Thrombin by Molecular Docking Virtual Screening Combined with Activity Evaluation In Vitro 1,2, 3,4, 3,4 1 1,2 Xiaoyan Wang y, Zhen Yang y, Feifei Su , Jin Li , Evans Owusu Boadi , Yan-xu Chang 1,2,* and Hui Wang 3,4,* 1 Tianjin State Key Laboratory of Modern Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 300193, China 2 Tianjin Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Pharmaceutical Analysis, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 300193, China 3 Tianjin Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Pharmacology, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 300193, China 4 College of Chinese Materia Medica, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 300193, China * Correspondence:
[email protected] (Y.-x.C.);
[email protected] (H.W.); Tel./Fax: +86-22-59596163 (Y.-x.C.) These authors contributed equally to this work. y Received: 20 December 2019; Accepted: 18 January 2020; Published: 20 January 2020 Abstract: Thrombin, a key enzyme of the serine protease superfamily, plays an integral role in the blood coagulation cascade and thrombotic diseases. In view of this, it is worthwhile to establish a method to screen thrombin inhibitors (such as natural flavonoid-type inhibitors) as well as investigate their structure activity relationships. Virtual screening using molecular docking technique was used to screen 103 flavonoids. Out of this number, 42 target compounds were selected, and their inhibitory effects on thrombin assayed by chromogenic substrate method. The results indicated that the carbon-carbon double bond group at the C2, C3 sites and the carbonyl group at the C4 sites of flavones were essential for thrombin inhibition, whereas the methoxy and O-glycosyl groups reduced thrombin inhibition.