In continuation of our efforts toward the discovery of potent non-nucleoside hepatitis B virus (HBV) inhibitors with novel structures, we have explored the solvent-exposed protein region of heteroaryldihydropyrimidine derivatives. Herein, the morpholine ring of GLS4 was replaced with substituted sulfonamides and triazoles to generate novel non-nucleoside HBV inhibitors with desirable potency. In in vitro biological evaluation, several derivatives showed good anti-HBV DNA replication activity compared to lamivudine. In particular, compound II-1 displayed the most Haiyong Jia is the co-first author. 568 | YU et al. F I G U R E 1 The structures of six nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors approved by US Food and Drug Administration for hepatitis B virus therapy [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] potent activity against HBV DNA replication (IC 50 = 0.35 ± 0.04 μM). The preliminary structure-activity relationships of the new compounds were summarized, which may help in discovering more potent anti-HBV agents via rational drug design. K E Y W O R D S capsid, HAP, HBV, protein-solvent interface, sulfonamide, triazoles Yellow solid, yield: 61%, mp: 79-83°C; 1 H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl 3 ) δ: 7.78 (d, J = 3.1 Hz, 1H), 7.76 (s, 1H), 7.46 (d, J = 2.9 Hz, 1H), 7.39-7.25 (m, 2H), 7.02 (td, J = 8.3, 2.3 Hz, 1H), 6.13 (s, 1H), 5.93 (dd, J = 15.4, 7.7 Hz, 1H), 5.82 (dd, J = 15.4, 7.5 Hz, 1H), 4.93 (t, J = 6.5 Hz, 1H), 4.11 (q, J = 7.1 Hz, 2H), 2.60 (s, 1H), 1.99-1.84 (m, 2H), 1.63-1.28 (m, 4H), 1.15 (t, J = 7.1 Hz, 3H), 0.88 (t, J = 7.1 Hz, 3H); EI-MS: 577.5 [M + H] + .Ethyl 4-Yellow solid, yield: 47%, mp: 85-89°C; 1H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl 3 ) δ: 7.93 (s, 1H), 7.72 (d, J = 8.1 Hz, 2H), 7.70 (d, J = 3.1 Hz, 1H), 7.30 (ddd, J = 15.0, 7.8, 5.2 Hz, 3H), 7.20