Computational Design of Two Novel BRAF V600E Inhibitors: Exploiting Sulfoximine Bioisosterism and Chiral Constraints to Evade Paradoxical Activation

Metastatic melanoma is an aggressive cutaneous malignancy frequently driven by the oncogenic V600E mutation within the BRAF kinase. While first-generation Type IS BRAF inhibitors, such as dabrafenib, are currently prescribed to target this specific molecular vulnerability, paradoxical MAPK pathway activation, and acquired drug resistance necessitate the continuous development of structurally optimized lead molecules. In this study, chemical intuition, bioisosteric replacement, and computational molecular docking were employed to propose two novel BRAFV600E drug candidates. The proposed therapeutics, engineered to incorporate constrained sp3-hybridized aliphatic rings and a sulfoximine bioisostere, demonstrated thermodynamically superior docking scores within the mutant catalytic cleft compared to dabrafenib. Lastly, a homology analysis determined that Mus musculus is a suitable model organism for future preclinical studies and confirmed crucial structural selectivity against microbial off-target kinases.