Investigation of the diastereomerism of dihydrobenzoxathiin SERMs for ER alpha by molecular modeling.

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to investigate the distinct uterine activity of ten dihydrobenzoxathiin diastereomers against human estrogen receptor (ER) α. These diastereomers share similar binding mode to ER α ligand binding domain (LBD). Dihydrobenzoxathiin diastereomers with full antagonistic activity form more stable hydrogen bonds with Glu353 and His524 of ER α LBD than corresponding diastereomers. The molecular mechanics based generalized born surface area (MM-GBSA) analysis revealed that van der Waals interactions are predominant to the binding of dihydrobenzoxathiin diastereomers to ER α LBD. The per-residue free energy decomposition analysis revealed that the uterine activity difference is contributed mainly by electrostatic interactions. Our study provides mechanistic insights into the difference of uterine activity for dihydrobenzoxathiin diastereomers.