| Summary: | Scaffold hopping is a frequently-used strategy in the development of non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors. Herein, CH(CN)-DAPYs were designed by hopping the cyano-methylene linker of our previous published CH(CN)-DABOs onto the etravirine (ETR). Eighteen CH(CN)-DAPYs were synthesized and evaluated for their anti-HIV activity. Most compounds exhibited promising activity against wild-type (WT) HIV-1. Compounds <b>B4</b> (EC<sub>50</sub> = 6 nM) and <b>B6</b> (EC<sub>50</sub> = 8 nM) showed single-digit nanomolar potency against WT HIV-1. Moreover, these two compounds had EC<sub>50</sub> values of 0.06 and 0.08 μM toward the K103N mutant, respectively, which were comparable to the reference efavirenz (EFV) (EC<sub>50</sub> = 0.08 μM). The preliminary structure–activity relationship (SAR) indicated that introducing substitutions on C2 of the 4-cyanophenyl group could improve antiviral activity. Molecular docking predicted that the cyano-methylene linker was positioned into the hydrophobic cavity formed by Y181/Y188 and V179 residues.
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