In the present study, receptor induced 3D-QSAR model was developed for a set of 
46 thieno[2,3-b]pyridine-5- carbonitrile PKC-θ inhibitors, to explore the 
structural requirements of the molecules necessary for PKC-θ inhibition. Since 
the chemical nature of the studied molecules was different from the crystal 
ligand of the selected protein, induced fit docking (IFD) protocol was employed 
to induce the conformational changes in the active site of the selected protein. 
Thereafter, all molecules were docked into the newly generated active site 
environment of the selected protein using glide docking program, and the 3D-QSAR 
analysis was performed in PHASE program utilizing the docking based alignment of 
the molecules. The best 3D-QSAR model was selected on the basis of the highest 
value of Q(2)test (0.600), and the selected model also showed high values of 
R(2)train , 0.915, Pearson-r, 0.801 and low value of SD, 0.241. The contour maps 
corresponding to the selected 3D-QSAR model, in combination with docking 
analysis, helped to explore the essential amino acid residues involved in 
binding, and structural requirements of the ligand molecules necessary for 
complementary fit with the active site of the protein. Therefore, the 
information revealed from the generated model can further be explored as a novel 
tool for the designing of new congener molecules that can serve as potential 
therapeutics for the treatment of various disease conditions associated with 
abnormal PKC-θ signalling.