Preclinical evaluation of Amphihevir, a first-in-class clinical Hepatitis C virus NS4B inhibitor

Analysis of Clinical Trials of New Drugs for Liver Diseases in China

Background

Liver diseases are a major public health concern worldwide, and the development of novel therapeutic drugs is an important research focus. But no overview has been conducted so far on the current research and development for liver-specific drugs in China, and the actual situation regarding the development and evaluation of new drugs in clinical trials.

Methods

The information of all clinical trials on liver diseases were obtained through the "Pharmaceutical Clinical Trial Registration and Information Disclosure Platform" before December 31, 2020.

Results

A total of 751 clinical trials on liver disease-related drugs were published on the above platform, including 574 chemical drugs, 128 biological products, and 49 traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)/natural drugs. The number of annual registrations has increased on an annual basis. The main indications for these clinical trials are viral hepatitis, liver malignancies, liver abscess, liver transplantation, congenital liver metabolic disease, and other hepatitis-related diseases. Hepatitis B, hepatitis C and liver cancer accounted for 72.4% of the total clinical trials, and the majority are related to generic drug research. There are 103 innovative drugs currently in clinical testing, mainly for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Conclusion

The stronger macro-control is required for the clinical trials conducted in China, and it is necessary to identify new therapeutic targets and develop novel drugs for the key liver diseases, as well as preventive hepatitis C vaccines, and targeted therapy, TCM/natural drugs and immunotherapy for liver cancer.

In silico design and analysis of NS4B inhibitors against hepatitis C virus

The hepatitis C virus is a communicable disease that gradually harms the liver leading to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Important therapeutic interventions have been reached since the discovery of the disease. However, its resurgence urges the need for new approaches against this malady. The NS4B receptor is one of the important proteins for Hepatitis C Virus RNA replication that acts by mediating different viral properties. In this work, we opt to explore the relationships between the molecular structures of biologically tested NS4B inhibitors and their corresponding inhibitory activities to assist the design of novel and potent NS4B inhibitors. For that, a set of 115 indol-2-ylpyridine-3-sulfonamides (IPSA) compounds with inhibitory activity against NS4B is used. A hybrid genetic algorithm combined with multiple linear regressions (GA-MLR) was implemented to construct a predictive model. This model was further used and applied to a set of compounds that were generated based on a pharmacophore modeling study combined with virtual screening to identify structurally similar lead compounds. Multiple filtrations were implemented for selecting potent hits. The selected hits exhibited advantageous molecular features, allowing for favorable inhibitory activity against HCV. The results showed that 7 out of 1285 screened compounds, were selected as potent candidate hits where Zinc14822482 exhibits the best predicted potency and pharmacophore features. The predictive pharmacokinetic analysis further justified the compounds as potential hit molecules, prompting their recommendation for a confirmatory biological evaluation. We believe that our strategy could help in the design and screening of potential inhibitors in drug discovery.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.