Context: Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) overactivity was correlated with several pathologies including type 2 diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, inflammation, obesity, etc. Objective: The aim of the current investigation was to model the inhibitory activity of maleimide derivatives -inhibitors of GSK-3, to evaluate the impact of alignment on statistical performances of the Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) and the effect of the template on shape-similarity -binding affinity relationship. Materials and methods: Dragon descriptors were used to generate Projection to Latent Structures (PLS) models in order to identify the structural prerequisites of maleimides to inhibit GSK-3. Additionally, shape/volume structural analysis of binding site interactions was evaluated. Results: Reliable statistics R 2 YðCUMÞ ¼ 0.938/0.920, Q 2 YðCUMÞ ¼ 0.866/0.838 for aligned and alignment free QSAR models and significant (Pearson, Kendall and Spearman) correlations between shape/volume similarity and affinities were obtained. Discussion and conclusions: The crucial structural features modulating the activity of maleimides include topology, charge, geometry, 2D autocorrelations, 3D-MoRSE as well as shape/volume and molecular flexibility.