Designed antiviral ankyrin – A computational approach to combat HIV-1 via intracellular pathway by targeting the viral capsid of HIV-1

Uracil derivatives as HIV-1 capsid protein inhibitors: design, in silico, in vitro and cytotoxicity studies

A series of novel uracil derivatives such as bispyrimidine dione and tetrapyrimidine dione derivatives were designed based on the existing four-point pharmacophore model as effective HIV capsid protein inhibitors. The compounds were initially docked with an HIV capsid protein monomer to rationalize the ideas of design and to find the potential binding modes. The successful design and computational studies led to the synthesis of bispyrimidine dione and tetrapyrimidine dione derivatives from uracil and aromatic aldehydes in the presence of HCl using novel methodology. The in vitro evaluation in HIV p24 assay revealed five potential uracil derivatives with IC₅₀ values ranging from 191.5 μg ml⁻¹ to 62.5 μg ml⁻¹. The meta-chloro substituted uracil compound 9a showed promising activity with an IC₅₀ value of 62.5 μg ml⁻¹ which is well correlated with the computational studies. As expected, all the active compounds were noncytotoxic in BA/F3 and Mo7e cell lines highlighting the thoughtful design. The structure activity relationship indicates the position priority and lower log P values as the possible cause of inhibitory potential of the uracil compounds.

The paper describes the design, synthesis, computational and biological validation of a series of novel uracil derivatives as effective HIV capsid protein inhibitors.

N-arylnaphthylamines as inhibitors of human immunodeficiency virus integrase - lens epithelium-derived growth factor interactions: theoretical studies

Presented work reports a comprehensive theoretical study on the inhibitory nature of N-arylnaphthylamines in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Integrase (HIV IN) - Lens Epithelium-Derived Growth Factor (LEDGF/p75) complexes. Factors influencing the inhibition efficiency in AlphaScreen% assay are evaluated and explained through the structure- and ligand-based studies; including molecular docking, molecular dynamics calculations, and quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) approach. It has been shown that N-arylnaphthylamines possess a wide variety of binding poses. Three QSAR models have been developed using structural descriptors and descriptors derived from docking calculations. The activity of untested N-arylnaphthylamines have been predicted using the most successful model. Proposed here technique could become a useful tool for ligand selection, accelerating the development of a new generation of anti-HIV medications. [Formula: see text] Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.