Computer aided fragment-based lead discovery has been successfully applied to the design of inhibitors of aspartyl protease enzyme β-secretase（BACE1）.A benzimidamide fragment,which binds to the two catalytic aspartic acid residues in the active site of the enzyme,was selected as the starting compound.A novel series of 3-phenethylbenzimidamide inhibitors were designed and synthesized.Although biological evaluation results showed that the compounds displayed poor inhibitory activity towards BACE1,3-phenethylbenzimidamide analogs might be modified as potential BACE1 inhibitors.
