The prostaglandins inside inflamed tissues are produced by cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), making it an important target for improving anti-inflammatory medications over a long period. Adverse effects have been related to the traditional usage of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for the treatment of inflammation, mainly centered around gastrointestinal (GI) complications. The current research involves the creation of a virtual library of innovative molecules showing similar drug properties via a structure-based drug design. A library that includes five novel derivatives of Diclofenac was designed. Subsequently, molecular docking through the Glide module and determining the binding free energy implementing the Prime-MMGBSA module by the Schrödinger software package was used to identify compounds that showed marked specificity towards the COX-2 isoform. In addition, the ligands are subject to evaluation of their drug-like properties and ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity) characteristics using the QikProp module. Finally, molecular dynamics simulation has been calculated for the best molecule. The docking results indicated that all compounds own a predictive capability for specific binding to the COX-2 enzyme compared to the standard drug with a docking score range from -10.07 to -10.66 Kcal/mole, thus potentially overcoming the limitations imposed previously by the drugs currently used in clinical use. The ADMET analysis of the virtually active compounds demonstrated an acceptable drug-like profile and desirable pharmacokinetics properties. MM/GBSA calculation revealed that all the suggested compounds exhibited favorable free binding energies (-49.150 to - 60.185 Kcal/mole), indicating their strong potential to fit well into the COX-2 receptor. Finally, the MD simulation study revealed that compound 1 had perfect alignment with COX-2 receptor. The findings indicated that the compounds possess a predictive capability for specific binding to the COX-2 enzyme, thus potentially surmounting the restrictions imposed by the drugs currently employed in clinical use.
