Background
Histone deacetylase 8 (HDAC8) is a plausible target for the development of novel anticancer drugs using a metal-chelating group and hydrophobic moieties as pharmacophores. It is known that valproic acid (administered as its salt, sodium valproate; VPANa+) is an HDAC8 inhibitor characterized by its hydrophobic chains. Nevertheless, VPA is hepatotoxic and VPA analogues might be explored for less hepatotoxic antiproliferative compounds. Method: In this work, docking and QSAR studies of 500 aryl-VPA derivatives as possible HDAC8 inhibitors were performed in order to explore and select potential anti-proliferative compounds. Docking