Virtual screening approach for the identification of new Rac1 inhibitors.

Rac1 protein is implicated in several events of atherosclerotic plaque development and represents a new potential pharmacological target for cardiovascular diseases. In this paper we describe a pharmacophore virtual screening followed by molecular docking calculations leading to the identification of five new Rac1 inhibitors. These compounds were shown to be more effective than the reference compound NSC23766 in reducing the intracellular levels of Rac1-GTP, thus supporting this approach for the development of new Rac1 inhibitors.