1
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Wang WW, Zeng P, Liu T, Zhou XL, Lin C, Guo L, Wang QS, Li J. Structural Basis of Main Proteases of Coronavirus Bound to Bofutrelvir. J Mol Biol 2024; 436:168784. [PMID: 39245318 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168784] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2024] [Revised: 09/01/2024] [Accepted: 09/03/2024] [Indexed: 09/10/2024]
Abstract
Globally, the continuous spread and evolution of SARS-CoV-2, along with its variants, profoundly impact human well-being, health, security, and the growth of socio-economic. In the field of development of drugs against COVID-19, the main protease (Mpro) is a critical target as it plays a core role in the lifecycle of SARS-CoV-2. Bofutrelvir acts as a potent inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, demonstrating high efficacy and broad-spectrum antiviral activity. Compared to therapies that require pharmacokinetic boosters, such as ritonavir, the monotherapy approach of Bofutrelvir reduces the risk of potential drug interactions, making it suitable for a wider patient population. However, further studies on the potency and mechanism of inhibition of Bofutrelvir against the Mpro of COVID-19 and its variants, together with other coronaviruses, are needed to prepare for the possibility of a possible re-emerging threat from an analogous virus in the future. Here, we reveal the effective inhibition of Bofutrelvir against the Mpro of SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and HCoV-229E through FRET and crystallographic analysis. Furthermore, the inhibitory mechanisms of Bofutrelvir against two SARS-CoV-2 Mpro mutants (G15S and K90R) were also elucidated through FRET and crystallographic studies. Through detailed analysis and comparison of these crystal structures, we identified crucial structural determinants of inhibition and elucidated the binding mode of Bofutrelvir to Mpros from different coronaviruses. These findings are hopeful to accelerate the development of safer and more potent inhibitors against the Mpro of coronavirus, and to provide important references for the prevention and treatment of similar viruses that may emerge in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei-Wei Wang
- Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201204, China
| | - Pei Zeng
- Jiangxi Province Key Laboratory of Pharmacology of Traditional Chinese Medicine, School of Pharmacy, Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou 341000, China
| | - Tongchao Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Xue-Lan Zhou
- Shenzhen Crystalo Biopharmaceutical Co, Ltd, Shenzhen 518118, China
| | - Cheng Lin
- Jiangxi Jmerry Biopharmaceutical Co, Ltd, Ganzhou 341000, China
| | - Li Guo
- Jiangxi Jmerry Biopharmaceutical Co, Ltd, Ganzhou 341000, China
| | - Qi-Sheng Wang
- Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201204, China.
| | - Jian Li
- Jiangxi Province Key Laboratory of Pharmacology of Traditional Chinese Medicine, School of Pharmacy, Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou 341000, China.
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2
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Cui W, Duan Y, Gao Y, Wang W, Yang H. Structural review of SARS-CoV-2 antiviral targets. Structure 2024; 32:1301-1321. [PMID: 39241763 DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2024.08.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2024] [Revised: 07/25/2024] [Accepted: 08/06/2024] [Indexed: 09/09/2024]
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), represents the most disastrous infectious disease pandemic of the past century. As a member of the Betacoronavirus genus, the SARS-CoV-2 genome encodes a total of 29 proteins. The spike protein, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, and proteases play crucial roles in the virus replication process and are promising targets for drug development. In recent years, structural studies of these viral proteins and of their complexes with antibodies and inhibitors have provided valuable insights into their functions and laid a solid foundation for drug development. In this review, we summarize the structural features of these proteins and discuss recent progress in research regarding therapeutic development, highlighting mechanistically representative molecules and those that have already been approved or are under clinical investigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wen Cui
- College of Pharmacy, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China
| | - Yinkai Duan
- Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies and School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China
| | - Yan Gao
- Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies and School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China; Shanghai Clinical Research and Trial Center, Shanghai 201203, China
| | - Wei Wang
- College of Pharmacy, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China.
| | - Haitao Yang
- Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies and School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China; Shanghai Clinical Research and Trial Center, Shanghai 201203, China.
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3
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Kuan Y, Chu HF, Hsu PH, Hsu KC, Lin TH, Huang CH, Chen WY. Disulfiram inhibits coronaviral main protease by conjugating to its substrate entry site. Int J Biol Macromol 2024; 276:133955. [PMID: 39025177 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.133955] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2023] [Revised: 07/12/2024] [Accepted: 07/16/2024] [Indexed: 07/20/2024]
Abstract
Coronaviruses (CoV) are highly pathogenic single-strand RNA viruses. CoV infections cause fatal respiratory symptoms and lung injuries in humans and significant economic losses in livestock. Since the SARS-2 outbreak in 2019, the highly conserved main protease (Mpro), also termed 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CLpro), has been considered an attractive drug target for treating CoV infections. Mpro mediates the proteolytic cleavage of eleven sites in viral polypeptides necessary for virus replication. Here, we report that disulfiram, an FDA-approved drug for alcoholic treatment, exhibits a broad-spectrum inhibitory effect on CoV Mpros. Analytical ultracentrifugation and circular dichroism analyses indicated that disulfiram treatment blocks the dimeric formation of SARS and PEDV Mpros and decreases the thermostability of SARS, SARS-2, and PEDV Mpros, whereas it facilitates the dimerization and stability of MERS Mpro. Furthermore, mass spectrometry and structural alignment revealed that disulfiram targets the Cys44 residue of Mpros, which is located at the substrate entrance and close to the catalytic His41. In addition, molecular docking analysis suggests that disulfiram conjugation interferes with substrate entry to the catalytic center. In agreement, mutation of Cys44 modulates the disulfiram sensitivity of CoV Mpros. Our study suggests a broad-spectrum inhibitory function of disulfiram against CoV Mpros.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Kuan
- Program in Molecular Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Hsu-Feng Chu
- Biomedical Industry Ph.D. Program, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Pang-Hung Hsu
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung 20224, Taiwan
| | - Kai-Cheng Hsu
- Graduate Institute of Cancer Biology and Drug Discovery, College of Medical Science and Technology, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Ta-Hsien Lin
- Division of Basic Research, Department of Medical Research, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei 112, Taiwan; Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112, Taiwan
| | - Chun-Hsiang Huang
- National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hsinchu City 30076, Taiwan.
| | - Wei-Yi Chen
- Program in Molecular Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan; Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei 112, Taiwan; Cancer and Immunology Research Center, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan.
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4
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Rosal RJZ, Paderes MC. Inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 viral entry by targeting spike:ACE2 interaction with O-modified quercetin derivatives. RSC Med Chem 2024:d4md00286e. [PMID: 39165908 PMCID: PMC11331306 DOI: 10.1039/d4md00286e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2024] [Accepted: 07/16/2024] [Indexed: 08/22/2024] Open
Abstract
The cell entry of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is mediated by the interaction between the receptor-binding domain of its spike (S) protein and human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Quercetin, a flavonoid found abundantly in plants, shows potential as a SARS-CoV-2 S:ACE2 inhibitor but is known to have low bioavailability. Modification of quercetin by capping its hydroxyl moieties could enhance the metabolic stability, solubility, and bioavailability, and reduce toxicity. In this study, sixteen (16) O-modified quercetin derivatives were synthesized by incorporating alkyl and acyl moieties of varying lengths, sizes, and polarities to the hydroxyl groups. The SARS-CoV-2 S:ACE2 inhibitory activity and toxicity of the synthesized derivatives were assessed in vitro, and their physicochemical properties, pharmacokinetics, and drug-likeness were predicted and evaluated using the SwissADME web tool. Results showed that functionalization of the hydroxyl moieties of quercetin generally resulted in more potent inhibitors (>50% inhibition). Five (5) derivatives displayed a dose-dependent inhibition against the SARS-CoV-2 S:ACE2 interaction with promising IC50 values (i.e., 2e (IC50 = 7.52 μM), 3a (IC50 = 5.00 μM), 3b (IC50 = 25.70 μM), 3c (IC50 = 2.22 μM), and 4b (IC50 = 3.28 μM)). Moreover, these compounds exhibited low hepato-, nephro-, and cardiotoxicity, and their SwissADME profiles indicated favorable physicochemical, pharmacokinetic, and drug-like properties, suggesting their potential as promising lead SARS-CoV-2 S:ACE2 inhibitors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Reuben James Z Rosal
- Institute of Chemistry, College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman Quezon City 1101 Philippines
| | - Monissa C Paderes
- Institute of Chemistry, College of Science, University of the Philippines Diliman Quezon City 1101 Philippines
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5
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Mahgoub RE, Mohamed FE, Ali BR, Ferreira J, Rabeh WM, Atatreh N, Ghattas MA. Discovery of pyrimidoindol and benzylpyrrolyl inhibitors targeting SARS-CoV-2 main protease (M pro) through pharmacophore modelling, covalent docking, and biological evaluation. J Mol Graph Model 2024; 127:108672. [PMID: 37992552 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmgm.2023.108672] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2023] [Revised: 11/03/2023] [Accepted: 11/09/2023] [Indexed: 11/24/2023]
Abstract
The main protease (Mpro) enzyme has an imperative function in disease progression and the life cycle of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Although the orally active drug nirmatrelvir (co-administered with ritonavir as paxlovid) has been approved for emergency use as the frontline antiviral agent, there are a number of limitations that necessitate the discovery of new drug scaffolds, such as poor pharmacokinetics and susceptibility to proteolytic degradation due to its peptidomimetic nature. This study utilized a novel virtual screening workflow that combines pharmacophore modelling, multiple-receptor covalent docking, and biological evaluation in order to find new Mpro inhibitors. After filtering and analysing ∼66,000 ligands from three different electrophilic libraries, 29 compounds were shortlisted for experimental testing, and two of them exhibited ≥20% inhibition at 100 μM. Our top candidate, GF04, is a benzylpyrrolyl compound that exhibited the highest inhibition activity of 38.3%, with a relatively small size (<350 Da) and leadlike character. Interestingly, our approach also identified another hit, DR07, a pyrimidoindol with a non-peptide character, and a molecular weight of 438.9 Da, reporting an inhibition of 26.3%. The established approach detailed in this study, in conjunction with the discovered inhibitors, has the capacity to yield novel perspectives for devising covalent inhibitors targeting the COVID-19 Mpro enzyme and other comparable targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Radwa E Mahgoub
- College of Pharmacy, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi, 112612, United Arab Emirates; AAU Health and Biomedical Research Centre, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi, 112612, United Arab Emirates
| | - Feda E Mohamed
- Department of Genetics and Genomics, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, 15551, United Arab Emirates
| | - Bassam R Ali
- Department of Genetics and Genomics, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, 15551, United Arab Emirates; Zayed Centre for Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, 15551, United Arab Emirates
| | - Juliana Ferreira
- Science Division, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, 129188, United Arab Emirates
| | - Wael M Rabeh
- Science Division, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, 129188, United Arab Emirates
| | - Noor Atatreh
- College of Pharmacy, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi, 112612, United Arab Emirates; AAU Health and Biomedical Research Centre, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi, 112612, United Arab Emirates
| | - Mohammad A Ghattas
- College of Pharmacy, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi, 112612, United Arab Emirates; AAU Health and Biomedical Research Centre, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi, 112612, United Arab Emirates.
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Khamto N, Utama K, Boontawee P, Janthong A, Tatieng S, Arthan S, Choommongkol V, Sangthong P, Yenjai C, Suree N, Meepowpan P. Inhibitory Activity of Flavonoid Scaffolds on SARS-CoV-2 3CL pro: Insights from the Computational and Experimental Investigations. J Chem Inf Model 2024; 64:874-891. [PMID: 38277124 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.3c01477] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2024]
Abstract
The emergence of the COVID-19 situation has become a global issue due to the lack of effective antiviral drugs for treatment. Flavonoids are a class of plant secondary metabolites that have antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 through inhibition of the main protease (3CLpro). In this study, 22 flavonoids obtained from natural sources and semisynthetic approaches were investigated for their inhibitory activity against SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro, along with cytotoxicity on Vero cells. The protein-ligand interactions were examined using molecular dynamics simulation. Moreover, QSAR analysis was conducted to clarify the structural effects on bioactivity. Accordingly, the in vitro investigation demonstrated that four flavonoids, namely, tectochrysin (7), 6″,6″-dimethylchromeno-[2″,3″:7,8]-flavone (9), panduratin A (19), and genistein (20), showed higher protease inhibitory activity compared to the standard flavonoid baicalein. Finally, our finding suggests that genistein (20), an isoflavone discovered in Millettia brandisiana, has potential for further development as a SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro inhibitor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nopawit Khamto
- Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Road, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
- Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary School, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Road, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
| | - Kraikrit Utama
- Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Road, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
- Office of Research Administration, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Road, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
| | - Panida Boontawee
- Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Road, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
- Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary School, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Road, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
| | - Atchara Janthong
- Program in Biotechnology, Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary School, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Road, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
| | - Suriya Tatieng
- Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Road, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
| | - Supakorn Arthan
- Program of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Sakon Nakhon Rajabhat University, Sakon Nakhon47000, Thailand
| | - Vachira Choommongkol
- Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Maejo University, 63 Nong Han, Chiang Mai 50290, Thailand
| | - Padchanee Sangthong
- Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Road, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
- Center of Excellence in Materials Science and Technology, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Road, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
| | - Chavi Yenjai
- Natural Products Research Unit, Department of Chemistry and Center of Excellence for Innovation in Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Khon Kaen University, 123, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand
| | - Nuttee Suree
- Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Road, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
- Center of Excellence in Materials Science and Technology, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Road, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
| | - Puttinan Meepowpan
- Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Road, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
- Center of Excellence in Materials Science and Technology, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Road, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
- Center of Excellence for Innovation in Chemistry (PERCH-CIC), Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Road, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
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7
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Borba JRBDM, de Araújo LP, Veloso MP, da Silveira NJF. Applying the bioisosterism strategy to obtain lead compounds against SARS-CoV-2 cysteine proteases: An in-silico approach. J Comput Chem 2024; 45:35-46. [PMID: 37641955 DOI: 10.1002/jcc.27217] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2023] [Revised: 07/17/2023] [Accepted: 08/14/2023] [Indexed: 08/31/2023]
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 cysteine proteases are essential nonstructural proteins due to their role in the formation of the virus multiple enzyme replication-transcription complex. As a result, those functional proteins are extremely relevant targets in the development of a new drug candidate to fight COVID-19. Based on this fact and guided by the bioisosterism strategy, the present work has selected 126 out of 1050 ligands from DrugBank website. Subsequently, 831 chemical analogs containing bioisosteres, some of which became structurally simplified, were created using the MB-Isoster software, and molecular docking simulations were performed using AutoDock Vina. Finally, a study of physicochemical properties, along with pharmacokinetic profiles, was carried out through SwissADME and ADMETlab 2.0 platforms. The promising results obtained with the molecules encoded as DB00549_BI_005, DB04868_BI_003, DB11984_BI_002, DB12364_BI_006 and DB12805_BI_004 must be confirmed by molecular dynamics studies, followed by in vitro and in vivo empirical tests that ratify the advocated in-silico results.
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Affiliation(s)
- João Ricardo Bueno de Morais Borba
- João Ricardo Bueno de Morais Borba, Laboratory of Molecular Modeling and Computer Simulation - MolMod-CS, Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Alfenas - UNIFAL-MG, Alfenas, Brazil
| | - Leonardo Pereira de Araújo
- Leonardo Pereira de Araújo, Laboratory of Molecular Modeling and Computer Simulation - MolMod-CS, Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Alfenas - UNIFAL-MG, Alfenas, Brazil
| | - Marcia Paranho Veloso
- Marcia Paranho Veloso, Laboratory of Molecular Modeling and Computer Simulation - MolMod-CS, Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Alfenas - UNIFAL-MG, Alfenas, Brazil
| | - Nelson José Freitas da Silveira
- Nelson José Freitas da Silveira, Laboratory of Molecular Modeling and Computer Simulation - MolMod-CS, Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Alfenas - UNIFAL-MG, Alfenas, Brazil
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8
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Jiang Y, Wu Y, Wang J, Ma Y, Yu H, Wang Z. Fragment-based Drug Discovery Strategy and its Application to the Design of SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitor. Curr Med Chem 2024; 31:6204-6226. [PMID: 38529602 DOI: 10.2174/0109298673294251240229070740] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2023] [Revised: 02/10/2024] [Accepted: 02/14/2024] [Indexed: 03/27/2024]
Abstract
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged at the end of 2019, causing a highly infectious and pathogenic disease known as 2019 coronavirus disease. This disease poses a serious threat to human health and public safety. The SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) is a highly sought-after target for developing drugs against COVID-19 due to its exceptional specificity. Its crystal structure has been extensively documented. Numerous strategies have been employed in the investigation of Mpro inhibitors. This paper is primarily concerned with Fragment-based Drug Discovery (FBDD), which has emerged as an effective approach to drug design in recent times. Here, we summarize the research on the approach of FBDD and its application in developing inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 Mpro.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu Jiang
- Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Disease-Related Biomarkers, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Baotou Medical College, Baotou, China
- College of Pharmacy, Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, China
| | - Yingnan Wu
- College of Pharmacy, Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, China
| | - Jing Wang
- College of Pharmacy, Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, China
| | - Yuheng Ma
- College of Pharmacy, Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, China
| | - Hui Yu
- School of Basic Medicine, Baotou Medical College, Baotou, China
| | - Zhanli Wang
- Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Disease-Related Biomarkers, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Baotou Medical College, Baotou, China
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Song L, Gao S, Ye B, Yang M, Cheng Y, Kang D, Yi F, Sun JP, Menéndez-Arias L, Neyts J, Liu X, Zhan P. Medicinal chemistry strategies towards the development of non-covalent SARS-CoV-2 M pro inhibitors. Acta Pharm Sin B 2024; 14:87-109. [PMID: 38239241 PMCID: PMC10792984 DOI: 10.1016/j.apsb.2023.08.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2023] [Revised: 07/10/2023] [Accepted: 08/02/2023] [Indexed: 01/22/2024] Open
Abstract
The main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2 is an attractive target in anti-COVID-19 therapy for its high conservation and major role in the virus life cycle. The covalent Mpro inhibitor nirmatrelvir (in combination with ritonavir, a pharmacokinetic enhancer) and the non-covalent inhibitor ensitrelvir have shown efficacy in clinical trials and have been approved for therapeutic use. Effective antiviral drugs are needed to fight the pandemic, while non-covalent Mpro inhibitors could be promising alternatives due to their high selectivity and favorable druggability. Numerous non-covalent Mpro inhibitors with desirable properties have been developed based on available crystal structures of Mpro. In this article, we describe medicinal chemistry strategies applied for the discovery and optimization of non-covalent Mpro inhibitors, followed by a general overview and critical analysis of the available information. Prospective viewpoints and insights into current strategies for the development of non-covalent Mpro inhibitors are also discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Letian Song
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
| | - Shenghua Gao
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
- Shenzhen Research Institute of Shandong University, Shenzhen 518057, China
| | - Bing Ye
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
| | - Mianling Yang
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
| | - Yusen Cheng
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
| | - Dongwei Kang
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
| | - Fan Yi
- The Key Laboratory of Infection and Immunity of Shandong Province, Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
| | - Jin-Peng Sun
- Key Laboratory Experimental Teratology of the Ministry of Education, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
| | - Luis Menéndez-Arias
- Centro de Biología Molecular “Severo Ochoa” (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas & Autonomous University of Madrid), Madrid 28049, Spain
| | - Johan Neyts
- KU Leuven, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Rega Institute for Medical Research, Laboratory of Virology and Chemotherapy, Leuven 3000, Belgium
| | - Xinyong Liu
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
| | - Peng Zhan
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China
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10
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Sharma G, Kumar N, Sharma CS, Mishra SS. In silico guided screening of active components of C. lanceolata as 3-chymotrypsin-like protease inhibitors of novel coronavirus. 3 Biotech 2023; 13:324. [PMID: 37663751 PMCID: PMC10471561 DOI: 10.1007/s13205-023-03745-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2023] [Accepted: 08/14/2023] [Indexed: 09/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Despite the intense worldwide efforts towards the identification of potential anti-CoV therapeutics, no antiviral drugs have yet been discovered. Numerous vaccines are now approved for use, but they all serve as preventative measures. To effectively treat viral infections, it is crucial to find new antiviral drugs that are derived from natural sources. Various compounds with potential activity against 3 chymotrypsin-like protease (3CLpro) were reported and some are validated by bioassay studies. Therefore, we performed the computational screening of phytoconstituents of Codonopsis lanceolata to search for potential antiviral hit candidates. The curated compounds of the plant C. lanceolata were collected and downloaded from the literature. The binding affinity of the curated datasets was predicted for the target 3CLpro. Stigmasterol exhibits the highest docking score for the 3CLpro target. In addition, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were conducted for the validation of docking results using root mean square deviation and root mean square fluctuation plots. The MD results indicated that the docked complex was stable and retained hydrogen bonding and non-bonding interactions. Furthermore, the calculation of pharmacokinetic parameters and Lipinski's rule of five suggest that C. lanceolata has the potential for drug-likeness. In order to develop new medicines for this debilitating disease, we will focus on the primary virus-based and host-based targets that can direct medicinal chemists to identify novel treatments to produce new drugs for it. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-023-03745-2.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ganesh Sharma
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Bhupal Nobles’ College of Pharmacy, Bhupal Nobles’ University, Udaipur, 313002 India
| | - Neeraj Kumar
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Bhupal Nobles’ College of Pharmacy, Bhupal Nobles’ University, Udaipur, 313002 India
| | - Chandra Shekhar Sharma
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Bhupal Nobles’ College of Pharmacy, Bhupal Nobles’ University, Udaipur, 313002 India
| | - Shashank Shekher Mishra
- Faculty of Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical and Populations Health Informatics, DIT University, Dehradun, 248009 India
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11
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Duan Y, Wang H, Yuan Z, Yang H. Structural biology of SARS-CoV-2 M pro and drug discovery. Curr Opin Struct Biol 2023; 82:102667. [PMID: 37544112 DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2023.102667] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2023] [Revised: 06/10/2023] [Accepted: 07/10/2023] [Indexed: 08/08/2023]
Abstract
Since its outbreak in late 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn enormous attention worldwide as a consequence of being the most disastrous infectious disease in the past century. As one of the most immediately druggable targets of SARS-CoV-2, the main protease (Mpro) has been studied thoroughly. In this review, we provide a comprehensive summary of recent advances in structural studies of Mpro, which provide new knowledge about Mpro in terms of its biological function, structural characteristics, substrate specificity, and autocleavage process. We examine the remarkable strides made in targeting Mpro for drug discovery during the pandemic. We summarize insights into the current understanding of the structural features of Mpro and the discovery of existing Mpro-targeting drugs, illuminating pathways for the future development of anti-SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yinkai Duan
- Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies and School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China; Shanghai Clinical Research and Trial Center, Shanghai, China
| | - Haofeng Wang
- Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies and School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China; Shanghai Clinical Research and Trial Center, Shanghai, China
| | - Zhenghong Yuan
- Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Virology (MOE/NHC/CAMS), School of Basic Medical Sciences and Institute of Infectious Disease and Biosecurity, Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
| | - Haitao Yang
- Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies and School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China; Shanghai Clinical Research and Trial Center, Shanghai, China.
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12
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Rampogu S, Jung TS, Ha MW, Lee KW. Repurposing and computational design of PARP inhibitors as SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors. Sci Rep 2023; 13:10583. [PMID: 37386052 PMCID: PMC10310815 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-36342-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2022] [Accepted: 06/01/2023] [Indexed: 07/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recent pandemic that caused serious global emergency. To identify new and effective therapeutics, we employed a drug repurposing approach. The poly (ADP ribose) polymerase inhibitors were used for this purpose and were repurposed against the main protease (Mpro) target of severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The results from these studies were used to design compounds using the 'Grow Scaffold' modules available on Discovery Studio v2018. The three designed compounds, olaparib 1826 and olaparib 1885, and rucaparib 184 demonstrated better CDOCKER docking scores for Mpro than their parent compounds. Moreover, the compounds adhered to Lipinski's rule of five and demonstrated a synthetic accessibility score of 3.55, 3.63, and 4.30 for olaparib 1826, olaparib 1885, and rucaparib 184, respectively. The short-range Coulombic and Lennard-Jones potentials also support the potential binding of the modified compounds to Mpro. Therefore, we propose these three compounds as novel SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shailima Rampogu
- Department of Bio and Medical Big Data (BK4 Program), Division of Life Sciences, Research Institute of Natural Science (RINS), Gyeongsang National University (GNU), Jinju, Republic of Korea.
| | - Tae Sung Jung
- Laboratory of Aquatic Animal Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine, Research Institute of Natural Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, 52828, Republic of Korea.
| | - Min Woo Ha
- Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Advanced Convergence Technology and Science, Jeju National University, 102 Jejudaehak-ro, Jeju, 63243, Republic of Korea.
| | - Keun Woo Lee
- Department of Bio and Medical Big Data (BK4 Program), Division of Life Sciences, Research Institute of Natural Science (RINS), Gyeongsang National University (GNU), Jinju, Republic of Korea.
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13
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Akinyele OF, Fakola EG, Adeboye OO, Chinuomah SC. Investigation of Methyl-5-(pentan-3-yloxy)-7-oxabicyclo[4.1.0]hept-3-ene-3-carboxyhydrazide Derivatives as Potential Inhibitors of COVID-19 Main Protease: DFT and Molecular Docking Study. Bioinform Biol Insights 2023; 17:11779322231182050. [PMID: 37377795 PMCID: PMC10291222 DOI: 10.1177/11779322231182050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2023] [Accepted: 05/27/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The search for effective therapeutics to combat COVID-19 has led to the exploration of the biological activity of numerous compounds. In this study, hydrazones derived from oseltamivir intermediate, methyl 5-(pentan-3-yloxy)-7-oxabicyclo[4.1.0]hept-3-ene-3-carboxylate have been investigated for their potential as drug candidates against the COVID-19 virus using computational methods, including density functional theory (DFT) studies, molecular docking, and absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity (ADMET) analysis. The DFT studies provide information on the electronic properties of the compounds while the molecular docking results using AutoDock reported the binding energies between the main protease of COVID-19 and the compounds. The DFT results revealed that the energy gap of the compounds ranged from 4.32 to 5.82 eV while compound HC had the highest energy gap (5.82 eV) and chemical potential (2.90 eV). The electrophilicity index values of the 11 compounds ranged from 2.49 to 3.86, thus they were classified as strong electrophiles. The molecular electrostatic potential (MESP) revealed electron-rich and electron-deficient regions of the compounds. The docking results reveal that all the compounds had better docking scores than remdesivir and chloroquine, frontline drugs employed in combating COVID-19, with HC having the best docking score of -6.5. The results were visualized using Discovery studio, which revealed hydrogen bonding, pi-alkyl interaction, alkyl interaction, salt bridge interaction, halogen interaction as being responsible for the docking scores. The drug-likeness results showed that the compounds qualify as oral drug candidates as none of them violated Vebers and Lipinski's rule. Thus, they could serve as potential inhibitors of COVID-19.
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14
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Kraka E, Antonio JJ, Freindorf M. Reaction mechanism - explored with the unified reaction valley approach. Chem Commun (Camb) 2023; 59:7151-7165. [PMID: 37233449 DOI: 10.1039/d3cc01576a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
One of the ultimate goals of chemistry is to understand and manipulate chemical reactions, which implies the ability to monitor the reaction and its underlying mechanism at an atomic scale. In this article, we introduce the Unified Reaction Valley Approach (URVA) as a tool for elucidating reaction mechanisms, complementing existing computational procedures. URVA combines the concept of the potential energy surface with vibrational spectroscopy and describes a chemical reaction via the reaction path and the surrounding reaction valley traced out by the reacting species on the potential energy surface on their way from the entrance to the exit channel, where the products are located. The key feature of URVA is the focus on the curving of the reaction path. Moving along the reaction path, any electronic structure change of the reacting species is registered by a change in the normal vibrational modes spanning the reaction valley and their coupling with the path, which recovers the curvature of the reaction path. This leads to a unique curvature profile for each chemical reaction, with curvature minima reflecting minimal change and curvature maxima indicating the location of important chemical events such as bond breaking/formation, charge polarization and transfer, rehybridization, etc. A decomposition of the path curvature into internal coordinate components or other coordinates of relevance for the reaction under consideration, provides comprehensive insight into the origin of the chemical changes taking place. After giving an overview of current experimental and computational efforts to gain insight into the mechanism of a chemical reaction and presenting the theoretical background of URVA, we illustrate how URVA works for three diverse processes, (i) [1,3] hydrogen transfer reactions; (ii) α-keto-amino inhibitor for SARS-CoV-2 Mpro; (iii) Rh-catalyzed cyanation. We hope that this article will inspire our computational colleagues to add URVA to their repertoire and will serve as an incubator for new reaction mechanisms to be studied in collaboration with our experimental experts in the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elfi Kraka
- Computational and Theoretical Chemistry Group (CATCO), Department of Chemistry, Southern Methodist University, 3215 Daniel Ave, Dallas, TX 75275-0314, USA.
| | - Juliana J Antonio
- Computational and Theoretical Chemistry Group (CATCO), Department of Chemistry, Southern Methodist University, 3215 Daniel Ave, Dallas, TX 75275-0314, USA.
| | - Marek Freindorf
- Computational and Theoretical Chemistry Group (CATCO), Department of Chemistry, Southern Methodist University, 3215 Daniel Ave, Dallas, TX 75275-0314, USA.
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15
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Gudima G, Kofiadi I, Shilovskiy I, Kudlay D, Khaitov M. Antiviral Therapy of COVID-19. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24108867. [PMID: 37240213 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24108867] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2023] [Revised: 04/19/2023] [Accepted: 04/19/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the scientific community has focused on prophylactic vaccine development. In parallel, the experience of the pharmacotherapy of this disease has increased. Due to the declining protective capacity of vaccines against new strains, as well as increased knowledge about the structure and biology of the pathogen, control of the disease has shifted to the focus of antiviral drug development over the past year. Clinical data on safety and efficacy of antivirals acting at various stages of the virus life cycle has been published. In this review, we summarize mechanisms and clinical efficacy of antiviral therapy of COVID-19 with drugs based on plasma of convalescents, monoclonal antibodies, interferons, fusion inhibitors, nucleoside analogs, and protease inhibitors. The current status of the drugs described is also summarized in relation to the official clinical guidelines for the treatment of COVID-19. In addition, here we describe innovative drugs whose antiviral effect is provided by antisense oligonucleotides targeting the SARS-CoV-2 genome. Analysis of laboratory and clinical data suggests that current antivirals successfully combat broad spectra of emerging strains of SARS-CoV-2 providing reliable defense against COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Georgii Gudima
- NRC Institute of Immunology, Federal Medico-Biological Agency, 115522 Moscow, Russia
| | - Ilya Kofiadi
- NRC Institute of Immunology, Federal Medico-Biological Agency, 115522 Moscow, Russia
- Department of Immunology, N.I. Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 117997 Moscow, Russia
| | - Igor Shilovskiy
- NRC Institute of Immunology, Federal Medico-Biological Agency, 115522 Moscow, Russia
| | - Dmitry Kudlay
- NRC Institute of Immunology, Federal Medico-Biological Agency, 115522 Moscow, Russia
- Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Pharmacy, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University), 119991 Moscow, Russia
| | - Musa Khaitov
- NRC Institute of Immunology, Federal Medico-Biological Agency, 115522 Moscow, Russia
- Department of Immunology, N.I. Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 117997 Moscow, Russia
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16
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Smith E, Davis-Gardner ME, Garcia-Ordonez RD, Nguyen TT, Hull M, Chen E, Yu X, Bannister TD, Baillargeon P, Scampavia L, Griffin P, Farzan M, Spicer TP. High throughput screening for drugs that inhibit 3C-like protease in SARS-CoV-2. SLAS DISCOVERY : ADVANCING LIFE SCIENCES R & D 2023; 28:95-101. [PMID: 36646172 PMCID: PMC9839384 DOI: 10.1016/j.slasd.2023.01.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2022] [Revised: 12/14/2022] [Accepted: 01/09/2023] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
The SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic remains a major problem in many parts of the world and infection rates remain at extremely high levels. This high prevalence drives the continued emergence of new variants, and possibly ones that are more vaccine-resistant and that can drive infections even in highly vaccinated populations. The high rate of variant evolution makes clear the need for new therapeutics that can be clinically applied to minimize or eliminate the effects of COVID-19. With a hurdle of 10 years, on average, for first in class small molecule therapeutics to achieve FDA approval, the fastest way to identify therapeutics is by drug repurposing. To this end, we developed a high throughput cell-based screen that incorporates the essential viral 3C-like protease and its peptide cleavage site into a luciferase complementation assay to evaluate the efficacy of known drugs encompassing approximately 15,000 clinical-stage or FDA-approved small molecules. Confirmed inhibitors were also tested to determine their cytotoxic properties. Medicinal chemistry efforts to optimize the hits identified Tranilast as a potential lead. Here, we report the rapid screening and identification of potentially relevant drugs that exhibit selective inhibition of the SARS-CoV-2 viral 3C-like protease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emery Smith
- Department of Molecular Medicine, UF Scripps Biomedical Research, Jupiter, FL 33458, United States
| | | | - Ruben D Garcia-Ordonez
- Department of Molecular Medicine, UF Scripps Biomedical Research, Jupiter, FL 33458, United States
| | - Tu-Trinh Nguyen
- Calibr at Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA 92037, United States
| | - Mitchell Hull
- Calibr at Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA 92037, United States
| | - Emily Chen
- Calibr at Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA 92037, United States
| | - Xuerong Yu
- Department of Chemistry, UF Scripps Biomedical Research, Jupiter, FL 33458, United States
| | - Thomas D Bannister
- Department of Chemistry, UF Scripps Biomedical Research, Jupiter, FL 33458, United States
| | - Pierre Baillargeon
- Department of Molecular Medicine, UF Scripps Biomedical Research, Jupiter, FL 33458, United States
| | - Louis Scampavia
- Department of Molecular Medicine, UF Scripps Biomedical Research, Jupiter, FL 33458, United States
| | - Patrick Griffin
- Department of Molecular Medicine, UF Scripps Biomedical Research, Jupiter, FL 33458, United States
| | - Michael Farzan
- Immunology and Microbiology, UF Scripps Biomedical Research, Jupiter, FL 33458, United States
| | - Timothy P Spicer
- Department of Molecular Medicine, UF Scripps Biomedical Research, Jupiter, FL 33458, United States.
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17
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Musa A, Abulkhair HS, Aljuhani A, Rezki N, Abdelgawad MA, Shalaby K, El-Ghorab AH, Aouad MR. Phenylpyrazolone-1,2,3-triazole Hybrids as Potent Antiviral Agents with Promising SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibition Potential. Pharmaceuticals (Basel) 2023; 16:ph16030463. [PMID: 36986562 PMCID: PMC10051656 DOI: 10.3390/ph16030463] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2023] [Revised: 03/14/2023] [Accepted: 03/15/2023] [Indexed: 03/30/2023] Open
Abstract
COVID-19 infection is now considered one of the leading causes of human death. As an attempt towards the discovery of novel medications for the COVID-19 pandemic, nineteen novel compounds containing 1,2,3-triazole side chains linked to phenylpyrazolone scaffold and terminal lipophilic aryl parts with prominent substituent functionalities were designed and synthesized via a click reaction based on our previous work. The novel compounds were assessed using an in vitro effect on the growth of SARS-CoV-2 virus-infested Vero cells with different compound concentrations: 1 and 10 μM. The data revealed that most of these derivatives showed potent cellular anti-COVID-19 activity and inhibited viral replication by more than 50% with no or weak cytotoxic effect on harboring cells. In addition, in vitro assay employing the SARS-CoV-2-Main protease inhibition assay was done to test the inhibitors' ability to block the common primary protease of the SARS-CoV-2 virus as a mode of action. The obtained results show that the one non-linker analog 6h and two amide-based linkers 6i and 6q were the most active compounds with IC50 values of 5.08, 3.16, and 7.55 μM, respectively, against the viral protease in comparison to data of the selective antiviral agent GC-376. Molecular modeling studies were done for compound placement within the binding pocket of protease which reveal conserved residues hydrogen bonding and non-hydrogen interactions of 6i analog fragments: triazole scaffold, aryl part, and linker. Moreover, the stability of compounds and their interactions with the target pocket were also studied and analyzed by molecular dynamic simulations. The physicochemical and toxicity profiles were predicted, and the results show that compounds behave as an antiviral activity with low or no cellular or organ toxicity. All research results point to the potential usage of new chemotype potent derivatives as promising leads to be explored in vivo that might open the door to rational drug development of SARS-CoV-2 Main protease potent medicines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arafa Musa
- Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, Jouf University, Sakaka 72341, Saudi Arabia
| | - Hamada S Abulkhair
- Pharmaceutical Organic Chemistry Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo 11884, Egypt
- Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Horus University-Egypt, International Coastal Road, New Damietta 34518, Egypt
| | - Ateyatallah Aljuhani
- Chemistry Department, College of Sciences, Taibah University, Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah 41477, Saudi Arabia
| | - Nadjet Rezki
- Chemistry Department, College of Sciences, Taibah University, Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah 41477, Saudi Arabia
| | - Mohamed A Abdelgawad
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, Jouf University, Sakaka 72341, Saudi Arabia
| | - Khaled Shalaby
- Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, Jouf University, Sakaka 72341, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ahmed H El-Ghorab
- Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Jouf University, Sakaka 72341, Saudi Arabia
| | - Mohamed R Aouad
- Chemistry Department, College of Sciences, Taibah University, Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah 41477, Saudi Arabia
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18
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Rong Y, Zhang C, Gao WC, Zhao C. Optimization of the expression of the main protease from SARS-CoV-2. Protein Expr Purif 2023; 203:106208. [PMID: 36403706 PMCID: PMC9673008 DOI: 10.1016/j.pep.2022.106208] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2022] [Accepted: 11/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
The main protease (Mpro) of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) plays a vital role in viral replication. To study the function of Mpro and screen inhibitors targeting Mpro, it is necessary to prepare high-purity and high-activity Mpro. In this study, four types of SARS-CoV-2 Mpros containing different termini were prepared, and their activities were determined successfully. The results showed that the activity of wild-type (WT) Mpro was the highest, and the additional residues at the N-terminus but not at the C-terminus had a major effect on the enzyme activity. To explain this, the alignment of structures of different forms of Mpro was determined, and the additional residues at the N-terminus were found to interfere with the formation of the substrate binding pocket. This study confirms the importance of the natural N-terminus to the activity of Mpro and suggests that WT-GPH6 (Mpro with eight additional residues at the C-terminus) can be used as a substitute for authentic Mpro to screen inhibitors. In short, this study provides a reference for the expression and purification of new coronaviruses confronted in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi Rong
- College of Biomedical Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, People's Republic of China
| | - Chaofeng Zhang
- College of Biomedical Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, People's Republic of China.
| | - Wen-Chao Gao
- College of Biomedical Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, People's Republic of China
| | - Cheng Zhao
- College of Biomedical Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, People's Republic of China.
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19
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Taysi S, Algburi FS, Taysi ME, Caglayan C. Caffeic acid phenethyl ester: A review on its pharmacological importance, and its association with free radicals, COVID-19, and radiotherapy. Phytother Res 2023; 37:1115-1135. [PMID: 36562210 PMCID: PMC9880688 DOI: 10.1002/ptr.7707] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2022] [Revised: 11/04/2022] [Accepted: 11/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), a main active component of propolis and a flavonoid, is one of the natural products that has attracted attention in recent years. CAPE, which has many properties such as anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial and anti-fungal, has shown many pharmacological potentials, including protective effects on multiple organs. Interestingly, molecular docking studies showed the possibility of binding of CAPE with replication enzyme. In addition, it was seen that in order to increase the binding security of the replication enzyme and CAPE, modifications can be made at three sites on the CAPE molecule, which leads to the possibility of the compound working more powerfully and usefully to prevent the proliferation of cancer cells and reduce its rate. Also, it was found that CAPE has an inhibitory effect against the main protease enzyme and may be effective in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. This review covers in detail the importance of CAPE in alternative medicine, its pharmacological value, its potential as a cancer anti-proliferative agent, its dual role in radioprotection and radiosensitization, and its use against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
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Affiliation(s)
- Seyithan Taysi
- Department of Medical Biochemistry, Medical School, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey
| | - Firas Shawqi Algburi
- Department of Medical Biochemistry, Medical School, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey.,Department of Biology, College of Science, Tikrit University, Tikrit, Iraq.,College of Dentistry, Al-Kitab University, Altun Kupri, Iraq
| | - Muhammed Enes Taysi
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical School, Bolu Izzet Baysal University-Bolu, Bolu, Turkey
| | - Cuneyt Caglayan
- Department of Medical Biochemistry, Medical School, Bilecik Seyh Edebali University, Bilecik, Turkey
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20
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Janeena A, Jayaraman N, Shanmugam G, Easwaramoorthi S, Ayyadurai N. Electrochemical Response of Redox Amino Acid Encoded Fluorescence Protein for Hydroxychloroquine Sensing. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 2023; 195:992-1013. [PMID: 36260248 PMCID: PMC9581447 DOI: 10.1007/s12010-022-04142-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/28/2022] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
The sudden rise in the demand has led to large-scale production of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in the global market for various diseases such as malaria, rheumatic arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematous and prophylactic treatment of early SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. Thorough monitoring of HCQ intake patients is in high demand; hence, we have developed a redox amino acid encoded fluorescent protein-based electrochemical biosensor for sensitive and selective detection of HCQ. This electrochemical biosensor is generated based on the two-electron transfer process between redox amino acid (3,4-dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine, DOPA) encoded bio-redox protein and the HCQ forms the conjugate. The DOPA residue in the bio-redox protein specifically binds with HCQ, thereby producing a remarkable electrochemical response on the glassy carbon electrode. Experimental results show that the developed biosensor selectively and sensitively detects the HCQ in spiked urine samples. The reagent-free bio-redox capacitor detects HCQ in the range of 90 nM to 4.4 µM in a solution with a detection limit of 58 nM, signal to noise ratio of 3:1, and strong anti-interference ability. Real-time screening, quantification, and relative mean recoveries of HCQ on spiked urine samples were monitored through electron shuttling using bio-redox protein and were found to be 97 to 101%. Overall, the developed bio-redox protein-based sensor has specificity, selectivity, reproducibility, and sensitivity making it potentially attractive for the sensing of HCQ and also applicable to clinical research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Asuma Janeena
- Biotechnology and Biochemistry, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, India
- Academy of Scientific and Industrial Research (AcSIR), 201002, Ghaziabad, India
| | - Narayanan Jayaraman
- Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, India
| | - Ganesh Shanmugam
- Academy of Scientific and Industrial Research (AcSIR), 201002, Ghaziabad, India
- Organic and Bio-Organic Chemistry, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, India
| | - Shanmugam Easwaramoorthi
- Academy of Scientific and Industrial Research (AcSIR), 201002, Ghaziabad, India.
- Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, India.
| | - Niraikulam Ayyadurai
- Biotechnology and Biochemistry, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, India.
- Academy of Scientific and Industrial Research (AcSIR), 201002, Ghaziabad, India.
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21
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Screening of Secondary Metabolite Compounds of Gorontalo Traditional Medicinal Plants Using the In Silico Method as a Candidate for SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral. JURNAL KIMIA SAINS DAN APLIKASI 2023. [DOI: 10.14710/jksa.25.10.382-393] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/05/2023] Open
Abstract
COVID-19 is a disease that caused a prolonged pandemic in many countries caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This study aims to identify the antiviral potential of secondary metabolites in Gorontalo traditional medicinal plants, which are believed to have the ability to inhibit the main protease protein of this virus. The methods used in this research were molecular docking and molecular dynamic. The main protease proteins for SARS-CoV-2 used based on the homology modeling results were 3V3M and 7TE0. The results of the active compounds in the paxlovid drug were also compared to obtain accurate data comparisons. The validation of the docking method on the 3V3M protein using the natural ligand 0EN revealed an RMSD of 0.75 Å. The RMSD value for validating the 7TE0 protein and natural ligand 4WI was 1.65 Å. The best molecular docking results were obtained using physalin F with a binding affinity of −10.3 kcal/mol for the 3V3M protein and physalin J with a binding affinity of −8.9 kcal/mol for the 7TE0 protein. The outcomes of the molecular dynamic method on the best complexes were determined by examining the value of changes in system energy, changes in system temperature, changes in system pressure, RMSD, RMSF, and bond-free energy (ΔG) of the complex. The standard 0EN ligand had a ΔG of −26.53 kcal/mol, while the standard 4WI ligand had a ΔG of −47.16 kcal/mol. The ΔG of the 3V3M-physalin F and 3V3M-physalin J complexes were respectively −28.22 kcal/mol and −26.62 kcal/mol. The ΔG of the 7TE0-Vitexin 2”-O-gallate and 7TE0-physalin J complexes were found to be −28.08 kcal/mol and −26.62 kcal/mol, respectively. The ΔG produced in paxlovid with complexes 3V3M and 7TE0 was −19.38 kcal/mol and −25.44 kcal/mol, respectively. Physalin F, physalin J, and Vitexin 2”-O-gallate have great potential to become SARS-CoV-2 inhibitor agents. However, in terms of structural stability and binding-active residues, these three compounds do not outperform the active substance in paxlovid.
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22
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Bajrai LH, Faizo AA, Alkhaldy AA, Dwivedi VD, Azhar EI. Repositioning of anti-dengue compounds against SARS-CoV-2 as viral polyprotein processing inhibitor. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0277328. [PMID: 36383621 PMCID: PMC9668197 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0277328] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2022] [Accepted: 10/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
A therapy for COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 19) caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains elusive due to the lack of an effective antiviral therapeutic molecule. The SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro), which plays a vital role in the viral life cycle, is one of the most studied and validated drug targets. In Several prior studies, numerous possible chemical entities were proposed as potential Mpro inhibitors; however, most failed at various stages of drug discovery. Repositioning of existing antiviral compounds accelerates the discovery and development of potent therapeutic molecules. Hence, this study examines the applicability of anti-dengue compounds against the substrate binding site of Mpro for disrupting its polyprotein processing mechanism. An in-silico structure-based virtual screening approach is applied to screen 330 experimentally validated anti-dengue compounds to determine their affinity to the substrate binding site of Mpro. This study identified the top five compounds (CHEMBL1940602, CHEMBL2036486, CHEMBL3628485, CHEMBL200972, CHEMBL2036488) that showed a high affinity to Mpro with a docking score > -10.0 kcal/mol. The best-docked pose of these compounds with Mpro was subjected to 100 ns molecular dynamic (MD) simulation followed by MM/GBSA binding energy. This showed the maximum stability and comparable ΔG binding energy against the reference compound (X77 inhibitor). Overall, we repurposed the reported anti-dengue compounds against SARS-CoV-2-Mpro to impede its polyprotein processing for inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leena H. Bajrai
- Special Infectious Agents Unit – BSL3, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
| | - Arwa A. Faizo
- Special Infectious Agents Unit – BSL3, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
| | - Areej A. Alkhaldy
- Special Infectious Agents Unit – BSL3, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- Clinical Nutrition Department, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
| | - Vivek Dhar Dwivedi
- Center for Bioinformatics, Computational and Systems Biology, Pathfinder Research and Training Foundation, Greater Noida, India
- Bioinformatics Research Division, Quanta Calculus, Greater Noida, India
| | - Esam I. Azhar
- Special Infectious Agents Unit – BSL3, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
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Bharati R, Sen MK, Kumar R, Gupta A, Sur VP, Melnikovová I, Fernández-Cusimamani E. Selection and Validation of the Most Suitable Reference Genes for Quantitative Real-Time PCR Normalization in Salvia rosmarinus under In Vitro Conditions. PLANTS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2022; 11:2878. [PMID: 36365331 PMCID: PMC9655146 DOI: 10.3390/plants11212878] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2022] [Revised: 10/12/2022] [Accepted: 10/25/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Salvia rosmarinus L. (rosemary) is known to have a wide range of pharmacological effects including antidiabetic, anticarcinogenic, and antitumorigenic properties owing to its secondary metabolites. Studies aiming to elevate these metabolites have utilized various elicitors and stresses under in vitro conditions, although underlying molecular mechanisms remain unexplored. Gene expression studies using RT-qPCR might provide valuable information regarding how plant and plant cells interact and perceive various treatments and elicitors. However, despite being able to calculate accurate fold changes, the accuracy of the RT-qPCR data highly depends on the expression of reference genes. To the best of our knowledge, there is no information available on the stable reference genes in rosemary under in vitro conditions. Thus, in this paper, we assessed the stability of seven commonly used reference genes under different elicitor and stress conditions using RT-qPCR. Thereafter, the five most commonly used software and algorithms (comparative ΔCt, BestKeeper, NormFinder, geNorm, and RefFinder) were used to rank the candidates based on their expression stabilities. In conclusion, we recommend using a combination of F1-ATPase, ATP synthase and ACCase to normalize the gene expression experiments in rosemary under in vitro conditions. The selected reference genes were verified using 4-coumarate-CoA ligase, a pharmacologically important gene, whose expression might alter under nanoparticle treatment. Additionally, reference genes for several plant tissues, elicitors, and stresses are also proposed. The conclusions obtained from this current study will accelerate the future molecular work in S. rosmarinus and other related species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rohit Bharati
- Department of Crop Sciences and Agroforestry, The Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic
| | - Madhab Kumar Sen
- Department of Agroecology and Crop Production, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic
| | - Ram Kumar
- Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic
| | - Aayushi Gupta
- Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic
| | - Vishma Pratap Sur
- Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, BIOCEV, Prumyslova 595, 252 50 Vestec, Czech Republic
| | - Ingrid Melnikovová
- Department of Crop Sciences and Agroforestry, The Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic
| | - Eloy Fernández-Cusimamani
- Department of Crop Sciences and Agroforestry, The Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic
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Promising SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitor ligand-binding modes evaluated using LB-PaCS-MD/FMO. Sci Rep 2022; 12:17984. [PMID: 36289271 PMCID: PMC9606277 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-22703-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2022] [Accepted: 10/18/2022] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Parallel cascade selection molecular dynamics-based ligand binding-path sampling (LB-PaCS-MD) was combined with fragment molecular orbital (FMO) calculations to reveal the ligand path from an aqueous solution to the SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) active site and to customise a ligand-binding pocket suitable for delivering a potent inhibitor. Rubraxanthone exhibited mixed-inhibition antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, relatively low cytotoxicity, and high cellular inhibition. However, the atomic inhibition mechanism remains ambiguous. LB-PaCS-MD/FMO is a hybrid ligand-binding evaluation method elucidating how rubraxanthone interacts with SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. In the first step, LB-PaCS-MD, which is regarded as a flexible docking, efficiently samples a set of ligand-binding pathways. After that, a reasonable docking pose of LB-PaCS-MD is evaluated by the FMO calculation to elucidate a set of protein-ligand interactions, enabling one to know the binding affinity of a specified ligand with respect to a target protein. A possible conformation was proposed for rubraxanthone binding to the SARS-CoV-2 Mpro active site, and allosteric inhibition was elucidated by combining blind docking with k-means clustering. The interaction profile, key binding residues, and considerable interaction were elucidated for rubraxanthone binding to both Mpro sites. Integrated LB-PaCS-MD/FMO provided a more reasonable complex structure for ligand binding at the SARS-CoV-2 Mpro active site, which is vital for discovering and designing antiviral drugs.
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Geethakumari AM, Ahmed WS, Rasool S, Fatima A, Nasir Uddin SM, Aouida M, Biswas KH. A genetically encoded BRET-based SARS-CoV-2 M pro protease activity sensor. Commun Chem 2022; 5:117. [PMID: 36187754 PMCID: PMC9516532 DOI: 10.1038/s42004-022-00731-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2022] [Accepted: 09/07/2022] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
The main protease, Mpro, is critical for SARS-CoV-2 replication and an appealing target for designing anti-SARS-CoV-2 agents. Therefore, there is a demand for the development of improved sensors to monitor its activity. Here, we report a pair of genetically encoded, bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET)-based sensors for detecting Mpro proteolytic activity in live cells as well as in vitro. The sensors were generated by sandwiching peptides containing the Mpro N-terminal autocleavage sites, either AVLQSGFR (short) or KTSAVLQSGFRKME (long), in between the mNeonGreen and NanoLuc proteins. Co-expression of the sensors with Mpro in live cells resulted in their cleavage while mutation of the critical C145 residue (C145A) in Mpro completely abrogated their cleavage. Additionally, the sensors recapitulated the inhibition of Mpro by the well-characterized pharmacological agent GC376. Further, in vitro assays with the BRET-based Mpro sensors revealed a molecular crowding-mediated increase in the rate of Mpro activity and a decrease in the inhibitory potential of GC376. The sensors developed here will find direct utility in studies related to drug discovery targeting the SARS-CoV-2 Mpro and functional genomics application to determine the effect of sequence variation in Mpro.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anupriya M. Geethakumari
- Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, College of Health & Life Sciences, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Education City, Qatar Foundation, Doha, 34110 Qatar
| | - Wesam S. Ahmed
- Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, College of Health & Life Sciences, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Education City, Qatar Foundation, Doha, 34110 Qatar
| | - Saad Rasool
- Division of Genomics and Precision Medicine, College of Health & Life Sciences, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Education City, Qatar Foundation, Doha, 34110 Qatar
| | - Asma Fatima
- Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, College of Health & Life Sciences, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Education City, Qatar Foundation, Doha, 34110 Qatar
| | - S. M. Nasir Uddin
- Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, College of Health & Life Sciences, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Education City, Qatar Foundation, Doha, 34110 Qatar
| | - Mustapha Aouida
- Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, College of Health & Life Sciences, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Education City, Qatar Foundation, Doha, 34110 Qatar
| | - Kabir H. Biswas
- Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, College of Health & Life Sciences, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Education City, Qatar Foundation, Doha, 34110 Qatar
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Dahri M, Sadeghi MM, Abolmaali SS. A computational study of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as potential nanostructures to combat SARS-CoV-2. Sci Rep 2022; 12:15678. [PMID: 36127369 PMCID: PMC9489710 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-19845-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2022] [Accepted: 09/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
The COVID-19 causative agent, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has a critical surface protein called spike protein (S protein), which is the target of many vaccines and drugs developments. Among non-structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2, main protease (Mpro) has drawn much attention to itself for designing antiviral drugs since it is very crucial for the virus replication in host cells. In the first part of the present study, the application of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), one of the developing nanomaterials in the deformation and consequently inhibition of S protein binding to the receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE 2), is investigated. In this line, various S protein inhibitors were designed virtually, including ZIF, UIO, and IRMOF that their interactions with S protein and were investigated using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The results revealed that ZIF is the best candidate among the investigated MOFs with the least amount of energy interference with S protein. In the second part, the interaction of three-dimensional (3D) MOFs (such as ZIF, IRMOF, and HKUST) with SARS-CoV-2 Mpro was investigated. HKUST had the most potent interaction with Mpro and showed more promise in deforming this protein's secondary structure among all materials tested. Furthermore, we investigated the interaction of HKUST-OH with Mpro to determine the effect of functionalization. The findings of this study could be used in future studies to introduce bioconjugates of MOFs and biological molecules (e.g., antibody or nanobody) or to use MOFs as carriers for antiviral drug delivery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Dahri
- Research Center for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Biomedicine Institute, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
- Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery, School of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
| | - Mohammad Moein Sadeghi
- Student Research Committee, School of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Samira Sadat Abolmaali
- Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery, School of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
- Department of Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, School of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
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27
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Teli DM, Patel B, Chhabria MT. Fragment-based design of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitors. Struct Chem 2022; 33:2155-2168. [PMID: 36035593 PMCID: PMC9399563 DOI: 10.1007/s11224-022-02031-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2022] [Accepted: 08/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 virus has been identified as a causative agent for COVID-19 pandemic. About more than 6.3 million fatalities have been attributed to COVID-19 worldwide to date. Finding a viable cure for the illness is urgently needed in light of the present pandemic. The prominence of main protease in the life cycle of virus shapes the main protease as a viable target for design and development of antiviral agents to combat COVID-19. The current study presents the fragment linking strategy to design the novel Mpro inhibitors for COVID-19. A total of 293,451 fragments from diversified libraries have been screened for their binding affinity towards Mpro enzyme. The best 1600 fragment hits were subjected to fragment joining to achieve 100 new molecules using Schrödinger software. The resulting molecules were further screened for their Mpro binding affinity, ADMET, and drug-likeness features. The best 13 molecules were selected, and the first 6 compounds were investigated for their ligand-receptor complex stability through a molecular dynamics study using GROMACS software. The resulting molecules have the potential to be further evaluated for COVID-19 drug discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Divya M. Teli
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, L. M. College of Pharmacy, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, 380009 Gujarat India
| | - Bansari Patel
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, L. M. College of Pharmacy, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, 380009 Gujarat India
| | - Mahesh T. Chhabria
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, L. M. College of Pharmacy, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, 380009 Gujarat India
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28
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Sepay N, Chakrabarti S, Afzal M, Alarifi A, Mal D. Identification of 4-acrylamido- N-(pyridazin-3-yl)benzamide as anti-COVID-19 compound: a DFTB, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics study. RSC Adv 2022; 12:24178-24186. [PMID: 36128538 PMCID: PMC9403657 DOI: 10.1039/d2ra04333e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2022] [Accepted: 08/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Omicron is one of the variants of COVID-19 and continuing member of a pandemic. There are several types of vaccines that were developed around the globe to fight against the virus. However, the world is suffering to find suitable drug candidates for the virus. The main protease (Mpro) enzyme of the virus is the best target for finding drug molecules because of its involvement in viral infection and protein synthesis. ZINC-15 is a database of 750 million commercially available compounds. We find 125 compounds having two aromatic rings and amide groups for non-covalent interactions with active site amino acids and functional groups with the capability to bind -SH group of C145 of Mpro through covalent bonding by a nucleophilic addition reaction. The lead compound (Z144) was identified using molecular docking. The non-covalent interactions (NCI) calculations show the interactions between amino acids present in the active site of the protein and the lead molecules are attractive in nature. The density functional-based tight-binding (DFTB) study of the lead compound with amino acids in the active site indicates that Q190 and Q193 play a very critical role in stabilization. The Michael addition of the acrylamide group of the lead molecule at β-position is facile because the low energy lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) is concentrated on the group. From molecular dynamics during 100 ns, it has come to light that strong non-covalent interactions are key for the stability of the lead inside the protein and such binding can fold the protein. The free energy for this interaction is -42.72 kcal mol-1 which was obtained from MM-GB/SA calculations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nayim Sepay
- Department of Chemistry, Lady Brabourne College Kolkata 700017 India
| | | | - Mohd Afzal
- Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University Riyadh 11451 Saudi Arabia
| | - Abdullah Alarifi
- Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University Riyadh 11451 Saudi Arabia
| | - Dasarath Mal
- Department of Chemistry, Vijaygarh Jyotish Ray College Kolkata 700032 India
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In Silico Analysis Using SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease and a Set of Phytocompounds to Accelerate the Development of Therapeutic Components against COVID-19. Processes (Basel) 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/pr10071397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the widespread COVID-19 pandemic, is homologous to SARS-CoV. It would be ideal to develop antivirals effective against SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we chose one therapeutic target known as the main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2. A crystal structure (Id: 6LU7) from the protein data bank (PDB) was used to accomplish the screening and docking studies. A set of phytocompounds was used for the docking investigation. The nature of the interaction and the interacting residues indicated the molecular properties that are essential for significant affinity. Six compounds were selected, based on the docking as well as the MM-GBSA score. Pentagalloylglucose, Shephagenin, Isoacteoside, Isoquercitrin, Kappa-Carrageenan, and Dolabellin are the six compounds with the lowest binding energies (−12 to −8 kcal/mol) and show significant interactions with the target Mpro protein. The MMGBSA scores of these compounds are highly promising, and they should be investigated to determine their potential as Mpro inhibitors, beneficial for COVID-19 treatment. In this study, we highlight the crucial role of in silico technologies in the search for novel therapeutic components. Computational biology, combined with structural biology, makes drug discovery studies more rigorous and reliable, and it creates a scenario where researchers can use existing drug components to discover new roles as modulators or inhibitors for various therapeutic targets. This study demonstrated that computational analyses can yield promising findings in the search for potential drug components. This work demonstrated the significance of increasing in silico and wetlab research to generate improved structure-based medicines.
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Daoui O, Elkhattabi S, Chtita S. Rational identification of small molecules derived from 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene as potential inhibitors of 3CL pro enzyme for COVID-19 therapy: a computer-aided drug design approach. Struct Chem 2022; 33:1667-1690. [PMID: 35818588 PMCID: PMC9261181 DOI: 10.1007/s11224-022-02004-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2022] [Accepted: 06/23/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
Small molecules such as 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene derivatives have remarkable activity toward inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro and COVID-19 proliferation, which show a strong correlation between their structures and bioactivity. Therefore, these small compounds could be suitable for clinical pharmaceutical use against COVID-19. The objective of this study was to remodel the structures of 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene derivatives to achieve a powerful biological activity against 3CLpro and favorable pharmacokinetic properties for drug design and discovery. Therefore, by the use of bioinformatics techniques, we developed robust 3D-QSAR models that are capable of describing the structure-activity relationship for 46 molecules based on 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene derivatives using CoMFA/SE (R 2 = 0.97, Q 2 = 0.81, R 2 pred = 0.95, c R 2 p = 0.71) and CoMSIA/SEHDA (R 2 = 0.94, Q 2 = 0.76, R 2 pred = 0.91, c R 2 p = 0.65) techniques. Accordingly, 96 lead compounds were generated based on a template molecule that showed the highest observed activity in vitro (T40, pIC50 = 5.81) and predicted their activities and bioavailability in silico. The rational screening outputs of 3D-QSAR, Molecular docking, ADMET, and MM-GBSA led to the identification of 9 novel modeled molecules as potent noncovalent drugs against SARS-CoV-2-3CLpro. Finally, by molecular dynamics simulations, the stability and structural dynamics of 3CLpro free and complex (PDB code: 6LU7) were discussed in the presence of samples of 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene derivative in an aqueous environment. Overall, the retrosynthesis of the proposed drug compounds in this study and the evaluation of their bioactivity in vitro and in vivo may be interesting for designing and discovering a new drug effective against COVID-19. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11224-022-02004-z.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ossama Daoui
- Laboratory of Engineering, Systems and Applications, National School of Applied Sciences, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah-Fez University, BP Box 72, Fez, Morocco
| | - Souad Elkhattabi
- Laboratory of Engineering, Systems and Applications, National School of Applied Sciences, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah-Fez University, BP Box 72, Fez, Morocco
| | - Samir Chtita
- Laboratory of Analytical and Molecular Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences Ben M’Sik, Hassan II University of Casablanca, B.P 7955 Casablanca, Morocco
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Sanachai K, Somboon T, Wilasluck P, Deetanya P, Wolschann P, Langer T, Lee VS, Wangkanont K, Rungrotmongkol T, Hannongbua S. Identification of repurposing therapeutics toward SARS-CoV-2 main protease by virtual screening. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0269563. [PMID: 35771802 PMCID: PMC9246117 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269563] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2022] [Accepted: 05/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 causes the current global pandemic coronavirus disease 2019. Widely-available effective drugs could be a critical factor in halting the pandemic. The main protease (3CLpro) plays a vital role in viral replication; therefore, it is of great interest to find inhibitors for this enzyme. We applied the combination of virtual screening based on molecular docking derived from the crystal structure of the peptidomimetic inhibitors (N3, 13b, and 11a), and experimental verification revealed FDA-approved drugs that could inhibit the 3CLpro of SARS-CoV-2. Three drugs were selected using the binding energy criteria and subsequently performed the 3CLpro inhibition by enzyme-based assay. In addition, six common drugs were also chosen to study the 3CLpro inhibition. Among these compounds, lapatinib showed high efficiency of 3CLpro inhibition (IC50 value of 35 ± 1 μM and Ki of 23 ± 1 μM). The binding behavior of lapatinib against 3CLpro was elucidated by molecular dynamics simulations. This drug could well bind with 3CLpro residues in the five subsites S1’, S1, S2, S3, and S4. Moreover, lapatinib’s key chemical pharmacophore features toward SAR-CoV-2 3CLpro shared important HBD and HBA with potent peptidomimetic inhibitors. The rational design of lapatinib was subsequently carried out using the obtained results. Our discovery provides an effective repurposed drug and its newly designed analogs to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kamonpan Sanachai
- Center of Excellence in Computational Chemistry (CECC), Department of Chemistry, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Tuanjai Somboon
- Center of Excellence in Biocatalyst and Sustainable Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Patcharin Wilasluck
- Center of Excellence for Molecular Biology and Genomics of Shrimp, Department of Biochemistry, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
- Molecular Crop Research Unit, Department of Biochemistry, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Peerapon Deetanya
- Center of Excellence for Molecular Biology and Genomics of Shrimp, Department of Biochemistry, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
- Molecular Crop Research Unit, Department of Biochemistry, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Peter Wolschann
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Thierry Langer
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | | | - Kittikhun Wangkanont
- Center of Excellence for Molecular Biology and Genomics of Shrimp, Department of Biochemistry, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
- Molecular Crop Research Unit, Department of Biochemistry, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
- * E-mail: (KW); (TR); (SH)
| | - Thanyada Rungrotmongkol
- Center of Excellence in Biocatalyst and Sustainable Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
- Program in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Graduate School, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
- * E-mail: (KW); (TR); (SH)
| | - Supot Hannongbua
- Center of Excellence in Computational Chemistry (CECC), Department of Chemistry, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
- * E-mail: (KW); (TR); (SH)
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Mohammed AO, Abo-Idrees MI, Makki AA, Ibraheem W, Alzain AA. Drug repurposing against main protease and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of SARS-CoV-2 using molecular docking, MM-GBSA calculations and molecular dynamics. Struct Chem 2022; 33:1553-1567. [PMID: 35789829 PMCID: PMC9243907 DOI: 10.1007/s11224-022-01999-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2022] [Accepted: 06/15/2022] [Indexed: 10/30/2022]
Abstract
A virus called severe acute respiratory distress syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) is the causing organism of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has severely affected human life and threatened public health. The pandemic took millions of lives worldwide and caused serious negative effects on human society and the economy. SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) are interesting targets due to their crucial role in viral replication and growth. Since there is only one approved therapy for COVID-19, drug repurposing is a promising approach to finding molecules with potential activity against COVID-19 in a short time and at minimal cost. In this study, virtual screening was performed on the ChEMBL library containing 9923 FDA-approved drugs, using various docking filters with different accuracy. The best drugs with the highest docking scores were further examined for molecular dynamics (MD) studies and MM-GBSA calculations. The results of this study suggest that nadide, cangrelor and denufosol are promising potential candidates against COVID-19. Further in vitro, preclinical and clinical studies of these candidates would help to discover safe and effective anti-COVID-19 drugs.
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Darwish RS, El-Banna AA, Ghareeb DA, El-Hosseny MF, Seadawy MG, Dawood HM. Chemical profiling and unraveling of anti-COVID-19 biomarkers of red sage (Lantana camara L.) cultivars using UPLC-MS/MS coupled to chemometric analysis, in vitro study and molecular docking. JOURNAL OF ETHNOPHARMACOLOGY 2022; 291:115038. [PMID: 35151836 PMCID: PMC8830149 DOI: 10.1016/j.jep.2022.115038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2021] [Revised: 01/13/2022] [Accepted: 01/23/2022] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE Red sage (Lantana camara L.) (Verbenaceae) is a widely spread plant that was traditionally used in Brazil, India, Kenya, Thailand, Mexico, Nigeria, Australia and Southeast Asia for treating several ailments including rheumatism and leprosy. Despite its historical role in relieving respiratory diseases, limited studies progressed to the plant's probable inhibition to respiratory viruses especially after the striking spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections. AIM OF THE STUDY This study aimed to investigate the inhibitory activity of different L. camara cultivars to SARS-CoV-2, that was not previously inspected, and clarify their mechanisms of action in the metabolomics viewpoint, and to determine the biomarkers that are related to such activity using UPLC-MS/MS coupled to in vitro-studies and chemometric analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS Chemical profiling of different cultivars was accomplished via UPLC-MS/MS. Principle component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal projection to latent structures (OPLS) models were built using SIMCA® (multivariate data analysis software). Cytotoxicity and COVID-19 inhibitory activity testing were done followed by TaqMan Real-time RT-PCR (Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) assay that aimed to study extracts' effects on RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) and E-genes expression levels. Detected biomarkers from OPLS analysis were docked into potential targets pockets to investigate their possible interaction patterns using Schrodinger® suite. RESULTS UPLC-MS/MS analysis of different cultivars yielded 47 metabolites, most of them are triterpenoids and flavonoids. PCA plots revealed that inter-cultivar factor has no pronounced effect on the chemical profiles of extracts except for L. camara, cultivar Drap d'or flowers and leaves extracts as well as for L. camara cv Chelsea gem leaves extract. Among the tested extracts, flowers and leaves extracts of L. camara cv Chelsea gem, flowers extracts of L. camara cv Spreading sunset and L. camara cv Drap d'or showed the highest selectivity indices scoring 12.3, 10.1, 8.6 and 7.8, respectively, indicating their relative high safety and efficacy. Leaves and flowers extracts of L. camara cv Chelsea gem, flowers extracts of L. camara cv Spreading sunset and L. camara cv Drap d'or were the most promising inhibitors to viral plaques exhibiting IC50 values of 3.18, 3.67, 4.18 and 5.01 μg/mL, respectively. This was incremented by OPLS analysis that related their promising COVID-19 inhibitory activities to the presence of twelve biomarkers. Inhibiting the expression of RdRp gene is the major mechanism behind the antiviral activity of most extracts at almost all concentration levels. Molecular docking of the active biomarkers against RdRp revealed that isoverbascoside, luteolin-7,4'-O-diglucoside, camarolic acid and lantoic acid exhibited higher docking scores of -11.378, -10.64, -6.72 and -6.07 kcal/mol, respectively, when compared to remdesivir (-5.75 kcal/mol), thus these four compounds can serve as promising anti-COVID-19 candidates. CONCLUSION Flowers and leaves extracts of four L. camara cultivars were recognized as rich sources of phytoconstituents possessing anti-COVID-19 activity. Combination of UPLC-MS/MS and chemometrics is a promising approach to detect chemical composition differences among the cultivars and correlate them to COVID-19 inhibitory activities allowing to pinpoint possible biomarkers. Further in-vitro and in-vivo studies are required to verify their activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Reham S Darwish
- Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
| | - Alaa A El-Banna
- Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
| | - Doaa A Ghareeb
- Biological Screening and Preclinical Trial Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt; Pharmaceutical and Fermentation Industries Development Centre, City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications (SRTA-City), Borg Al-Arab, Alexandria, Egypt
| | | | | | - Hend M Dawood
- Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
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Discovery of novel SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors targeting the main protease M pro by virtual screenings and hit optimization. Antiviral Res 2022; 204:105350. [PMID: 35688349 PMCID: PMC9172283 DOI: 10.1016/j.antiviral.2022.105350] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2022] [Revised: 05/25/2022] [Accepted: 05/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Two years after its emergence, SARS-CoV-2 still represents a serious and global threat to human health. Antiviral drug development usually takes a long time and, to increase the chances of success, chemical variability of hit compounds represents a valuable source for the discovery of new antivirals. In this work, we applied a platform of variably oriented virtual screening campaigns to seek for novel chemical scaffolds for SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) inhibitors. The study on the resulting 30 best hits led to the identification of a series of structurally unrelated Mpro inhibitors. Some of them exhibited antiviral activity in the low micromolar range against SARS-CoV-2 and other human coronaviruses (HCoVs) in different cell lines. Time-of-addition experiments demonstrated an antiviral effect during the viral replication cycle at a time frame consistent with the inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro activity. As a proof-of-concept, to validate the pharmaceutical potential of the selected hits against SARS-CoV-2, we rationally optimized one of the hit compounds and obtained two potent SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors with increased activity against Mpro both in vitro and in a cellular context, as well as against SARS-CoV-2 replication in infected cells. This study significantly contributes to the expansion of the chemical variability of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitors and provides new scaffolds to be exploited for pan-coronavirus antiviral drug development.
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Rath SL, Tripathy M, Mandal N. How Does Temperature Affect the Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 M Proteins? Insights from Molecular Dynamics Simulations. J Membr Biol 2022; 255:341-356. [PMID: 35552785 PMCID: PMC9101995 DOI: 10.1007/s00232-022-00244-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2022] [Accepted: 05/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Enveloped viruses, in general, have several transmembrane proteins and glycoproteins, which assist the virus in entry and attachment onto the host cells. These proteins also play a significant role in determining the shape and size of the newly formed virus particles. The lipid membrane and the embedded proteins affect each other in non-trivial ways during the course of the viral life cycle. Unraveling the nature of the protein-protein and protein-lipid interactions, under various environmental and physiological conditions, could therefore prove to be crucial in development of therapeutics. Here, we study the M protein of SARS-CoV-2 to understand the effect of temperature on the properties of the protein-membrane system. The membrane-embedded dimeric M proteins were studied using atomistic and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations at temperatures ranging between 10 and 50 °C. While temperature-induced fluctuations are expected to be monotonic, we observe a steady rise in the protein dynamics up to 40 °C, beyond which it surprisingly reverts back to the low-temperature behavior. Detailed investigation reveals disordering of the membrane lipids in the presence of the protein, which induces additional curvature around the transmembrane region. Coarse-grained simulations indicate temperature-dependent aggregation of M protein dimers. Our study clearly indicates that the dynamics of membrane lipids and integral M protein of SARS-CoV-2 enables it to better associate and aggregate only at a certain temperature range (i.e., ~ 30-40 °C). This can have important implications in the protein aggregation and subsequent viral budding/fission processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Soumya Lipsa Rath
- Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Technology Warangal (NITW), Telangana, 506004, India.
| | - Madhusmita Tripathy
- Eduard-Zintl-Institut für Anorganische und Physikalische Chemie, Technische Universität Darmstadt, 64287, Darmstadt, Germany.
| | - Nabanita Mandal
- Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Technology Warangal (NITW), Telangana, 506004, India
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Calleja DJ, Lessene G, Komander D. Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 PLpro. Front Chem 2022; 10:876212. [PMID: 35559224 PMCID: PMC9086436 DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2022.876212] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2022] [Accepted: 03/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 causing the COVID-19 pandemic, has highlighted how a combination of urgency, collaboration and building on existing research can enable rapid vaccine development to fight disease outbreaks. However, even countries with high vaccination rates still see surges in case numbers and high numbers of hospitalized patients. The development of antiviral treatments hence remains a top priority in preventing hospitalization and death of COVID-19 patients, and eventually bringing an end to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The SARS-CoV-2 proteome contains several essential enzymatic activities embedded within its non-structural proteins (nsps). We here focus on nsp3, that harbours an essential papain-like protease (PLpro) domain responsible for cleaving the viral polyprotein as part of viral processing. Moreover, nsp3/PLpro also cleaves ubiquitin and ISG15 modifications within the host cell, derailing innate immune responses. Small molecule inhibition of the PLpro protease domain significantly reduces viral loads in SARS-CoV-2 infection models, suggesting that PLpro is an excellent drug target for next generation antivirals. In this review we discuss the conserved structure and function of PLpro and the ongoing efforts to design small molecule PLpro inhibitors that exploit this knowledge. We first discuss the many drug repurposing attempts, concluding that it is unlikely that PLpro-targeting drugs already exist. We next discuss the wealth of structural information on SARS-CoV-2 PLpro inhibition, for which there are now ∼30 distinct crystal structures with small molecule inhibitors bound in a surprising number of distinct crystallographic settings. We focus on optimisation of an existing compound class, based on SARS-CoV PLpro inhibitor GRL-0617, and recapitulate how new GRL-0617 derivatives exploit different features of PLpro, to overcome some compound liabilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dale J. Calleja
- Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Parkville, VIC, Australia
- Department of Medical Biology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Guillaume Lessene
- Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Parkville, VIC, Australia
- Department of Medical Biology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - David Komander
- Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Parkville, VIC, Australia
- Department of Medical Biology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
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37
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Structural basis for replicase polyprotein cleavage and substrate specificity of main protease from SARS-CoV-2. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2117142119. [PMID: 35380892 PMCID: PMC9172370 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2117142119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 32.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
COVID-19 is a deadly rampaging infectious disease with over 480 million cases worldwide. Unfortunately, effective therapies remain very limited. Novel antiviral agents are urgently needed to combat this global healthcare crisis. Here, we elucidate the structural basis for replicase polyprotein cleavage and substrate specificity of SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro). Through analyzing a series of high-resolution structures of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro throughout the proteolytic process, we demonstrate the molecular mechanism of Mpro in proteolytic processing that confers substrate specificity. Substrate selectivity is revealed using structures of the H41A mutant in complex with six individual native cleavage substrates. Our study underscores the mechanistic function of Mpro in the viral life cycle, which provides structural insights to develop effective inhibitors against this essential target of SARS-CoV-2. The main protease (Mpro) of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a key enzyme, which extensively digests CoV replicase polyproteins essential for viral replication and transcription, making it an attractive target for antiviral drug development. However, the molecular mechanism of how Mpro of SARS-CoV-2 digests replicase polyproteins, releasing the nonstructural proteins (nsps), and its substrate specificity remain largely unknown. Here, we determine the high-resolution structures of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro in its resting state, precleavage state, and postcleavage state, constituting a full cycle of substrate cleavage. The structures show the delicate conformational changes that occur during polyprotein processing. Further, we solve the structures of the SARS-CoV-2 Mpro mutant (H41A) in complex with six native cleavage substrates from replicase polyproteins, and demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 Mpro can recognize sequences as long as 10 residues but only have special selectivity for four subsites. These structural data provide a basis to develop potent new inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2.
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Patil AF, Patil VS, Jaiswal DP, Palakhe SS, Patil SP, Kumbhar BV. Investigating the novel acetonitrile derivatives as potential SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitor using molecular modeling approach. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2022; 41:3943-3955. [PMID: 35382699 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2022.2059568] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
The COVID-19 is declared a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO). It causes respiratory illness which leads to oxygen deficiency; it has affected millions of lives all around the globe. It has also been observed that people with diabetes condition are more likely to have severe symptoms when infected with the SARS-CoV2. So, continued efforts are being taken to design and discover potential anti-covid drugs. Earlier, a study reveals that the acetonitrile (2-phenyl-4H-benzopyrimedo [2,1-b]-thiazol-4-yliden) derivatives have potential anti-diabetic activity. Hence, drugs repurpose approach was used to identify the potential acetonitrile derivative targeting the main protease of SARS-CoV2. Here, ADMET, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics simulation techniques were employed, to identify potential acetonitrile compounds against the main protease. The acetonitrile compounds (A to M) show the drug-likeness properties. Next, the molecular docking and dynamics simulation study reveals that acetonitrile compounds A, F, G, and L show a higher binding affinity and have an effect on the structure and dynamics of the main protease. Furthermore, binding energy calculations reveal that the acetonitrile derivative F has a higher binding affinity with the main protease and derivative L has a lower binding affinity with the main protease. The binding affinity of acetonitrile derivatives decreases in the order of F > A > G > L with the main protease. Thus, our computational modeling study provides valuable structural and energetic information of interaction of potential acetonitrile derivatives with the main protease which could be further used as potential lead molecules against the SARS-CoV2.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Vijay Shivaji Patil
- Department of Chemistry, Science College Akkalkuwa, K. B. C. N. M. U, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India
| | - Dipak Premchand Jaiswal
- Department of Zoology, A. C. S. College Navapur, K. B. C. N. M. U, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India
| | - Sandip Sumant Palakhe
- Department of Chemistry A. C. S. College Dharangaon, K. B. C. N. M. U, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India
| | - Sandip Pandurang Patil
- Department of Chemistry G.T.P. College Nandurbar, K. B. C. N. M. U, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India
| | - Bajarang Vasant Kumbhar
- Department of Biological Sciences, Sunandan Divatia School of Science, NMIMS University (Deemed to be), Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
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Hymecromone: a clinical prescription hyaluronan inhibitor for efficiently blocking COVID-19 progression. Signal Transduct Target Ther 2022; 7:91. [PMID: 35304437 PMCID: PMC8931182 DOI: 10.1038/s41392-022-00952-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2021] [Revised: 02/18/2022] [Accepted: 03/03/2022] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Currently, there is no effective drugs for treating clinically COVID-19 except dexamethasone. We previously revealed that human identical sequences of SARS-CoV-2 promote the COVID-19 progression by upregulating hyaluronic acid (HA). As the inhibitor of HA synthesis, hymecromone is an approved prescription drug used for treating biliary spasm. Here, we aimed to investigate the relation between HA and COVID-19, and evaluate the therapeutic effects of hymecromone on COVID-19. Firstly, HA was closely relevant to clinical parameters, including lymphocytes (n = 158; r = −0.50; P < 0.0001), C-reactive protein (n = 156; r = 0.55; P < 0.0001), D-dimer (n = 154; r = 0.38; P < 0.0001), and fibrinogen (n = 152; r = 0.37; P < 0.0001), as well as the mass (n = 78; r = 0.43; P < 0.0001) and volume (n = 78; r = 0.41; P = 0.0002) of ground-glass opacity, the mass (n = 78; r = 0.48; P < 0.0001) and volume (n = 78; r = 0.47; P < 0.0001) of consolidation in patient with low level of hyaluronan (HA < 48.43 ng/mL). Furthermore, hyaluronan could directly cause mouse pulmonary lesions. Besides, hymecromone remarkably reduced HA via downregulating HAS2/HAS3 expression. Moreover, 89% patients with hymecromone treatment had pulmonary lesion absorption while only 42% patients in control group had pulmonary lesion absorption (P < 0.0001). In addition, lymphocytes recovered more quickly in hymecromone-treated patients (n = 8) than control group (n = 5) (P < 0.05). These findings suggest that hymecromone is a promising drug for COVID-19 and deserves our further efforts to determine its effect in a larger cohort.
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40
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Zothantluanga JH, Abdalla M, Rudrapal M, Tian Q, Chetia D, Li J. Computational Investigations for Identification of Bioactive Molecules from Baccaurea ramiflora and Bergenia ciliata as Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 M pro. Polycycl Aromat Compd 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/10406638.2022.2046613] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- James H. Zothantluanga
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, Assam, India
| | - Mohnad Abdalla
- Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Shandong Province, PR China
| | - Mithun Rudrapal
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Rasiklal M. Dhariwal Institute of Pharmaceutical Education Research, Pune, Maharashtra, India
| | - Qiang Tian
- Department of Senile Neurology, The Central Hospital of Taian, Taian, Shandong, PR China
| | - Dipak Chetia
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, Assam, India
| | - Jin Li
- Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Shandong Province, PR China
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41
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Bai B, Belovodskiy A, Hena M, Kandadai AS, Joyce MA, Saffran HA, Shields JA, Khan MB, Arutyunova E, Lu J, Bajwa SK, Hockman D, Fischer C, Lamer T, Vuong W, van Belkum MJ, Gu Z, Lin F, Du Y, Xu J, Rahim M, Young HS, Vederas JC, Tyrrell DL, Lemieux MJ, Nieman JA. Peptidomimetic α-Acyloxymethylketone Warheads with Six-Membered Lactam P1 Glutamine Mimic: SARS-CoV-2 3CL Protease Inhibition, Coronavirus Antiviral Activity, and in Vitro Biological Stability. J Med Chem 2022; 65:2905-2925. [PMID: 34242027 PMCID: PMC8291138 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c00616] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 32.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Recurring coronavirus outbreaks, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, establish a necessity to develop direct-acting antivirals that can be readily administered and are active against a broad spectrum of coronaviruses. Described in this Article are novel α-acyloxymethylketone warhead peptidomimetic compounds with a six-membered lactam glutamine mimic in P1. Compounds with potent SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease and in vitro viral replication inhibition were identified with low cytotoxicity and good plasma and glutathione stability. Compounds 15e, 15h, and 15l displayed selectivity for SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease over CatB and CatS and superior in vitro SARS-CoV-2 antiviral replication inhibition compared with the reported peptidomimetic inhibitors with other warheads. The cocrystallization of 15l with SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease confirmed the formation of a covalent adduct. α-Acyloxymethylketone compounds also exhibited antiviral activity against an alphacoronavirus and non-SARS betacoronavirus strains with similar potency and a better selectivity index than remdesivir. These findings demonstrate the potential of the substituted heteroaromatic and aliphatic α-acyloxymethylketone warheads as coronavirus inhibitors, and the described results provide a basis for further optimization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bing Bai
- Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
| | - Alexandr Belovodskiy
- Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
| | - Mostofa Hena
- Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
| | - Appan Srinivas Kandadai
- Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
| | - Michael A. Joyce
- Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
| | - Holly A. Saffran
- Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
| | - Justin A. Shields
- Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
| | - Muhammad Bashir Khan
- Department of Biochemistry, University of
Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H7, Canada
| | - Elena Arutyunova
- Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
- Department of Biochemistry, University of
Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H7, Canada
| | - Jimmy Lu
- Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
- Department of Biochemistry, University of
Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H7, Canada
| | - Sardeev K. Bajwa
- Department of Biochemistry, University of
Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H7, Canada
| | - Darren Hockman
- Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
| | - Conrad Fischer
- Department of Chemistry, University of
Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G2, Canada
| | - Tess Lamer
- Department of Chemistry, University of
Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G2, Canada
| | - Wayne Vuong
- Department of Chemistry, University of
Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G2, Canada
| | - Marco J. van Belkum
- Department of Chemistry, University of
Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G2, Canada
| | - Zhengxian Gu
- WuXi AppTec (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.,
G Warehouse #101, No. 10 Building, #227 Meisheng Road, WaiGaoQiao Free Trade Zone,
Shanghai 200131, China
| | - Fusen Lin
- WuXi AppTec (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.,
G Warehouse #101, No. 10 Building, #227 Meisheng Road, WaiGaoQiao Free Trade Zone,
Shanghai 200131, China
| | - Yanhua Du
- WuXi AppTec (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.,
G Warehouse #101, No. 10 Building, #227 Meisheng Road, WaiGaoQiao Free Trade Zone,
Shanghai 200131, China
| | - Jia Xu
- WuXi AppTec (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.,
G Warehouse #101, No. 10 Building, #227 Meisheng Road, WaiGaoQiao Free Trade Zone,
Shanghai 200131, China
| | - Mohammad Rahim
- Rane Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
4290 91a Street NW, Edmonton, Alberta T6E 5V2, Canada
| | - Howard S. Young
- Department of Biochemistry, University of
Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H7, Canada
| | - John C. Vederas
- Department of Chemistry, University of
Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G2, Canada
| | - D. Lorne Tyrrell
- Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
- Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
| | - M. Joanne Lemieux
- Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
- Department of Biochemistry, University of
Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H7, Canada
| | - James A. Nieman
- Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1,
Canada
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42
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Singh G, Pawan, Mohit, Diksha, Suman, Priyanka, Sushma, Saini A, Kaur A. Design of new bis-triazolyl structure for identification of inhibitory activity on COVID-19 main protease by molecular docking approach. J Mol Struct 2022; 1250:131858. [PMID: 34744185 PMCID: PMC8563301 DOI: 10.1016/j.molstruc.2021.131858] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2021] [Accepted: 10/31/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
In the rapidly growing COVID-19 pandemic, designing of new drugs and evaluating their inhibitory action against main targets of corona virus could be an effective strategy to accelerate the drug discovery process and their efficacy towards corona virus disease. Herein, we design new bis-triazolyl probe for an investigation of inhibitory activity towards COVID-19 main protease by Molecular docking approach. The formulated compound has been thoroughly characterized by elemental analysis, NMR (1H and 13C) and complete structure elucidation was achieved via X-ray crystallography. Docking study reveals that newly synthesized compound confers good inhibitory response to COVID-19 main protease as supported by calculated docking score and binding energy. Strong hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions of the newly synthesized compound with several important amino acids of the main protease also helps to explain the potency of the compound to inhibit the main protease. We hope that the present study would help the researcher in the field of Medicinal chemistry and to develop potential drug against the novel corona virus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gurjaspreet Singh
- Department of Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
| | - Pawan
- Department of Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
| | - Mohit
- Department of Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
| | - Diksha
- Department of Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
| | - Suman
- Department of Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
| | - Priyanka
- Department of Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
| | - Sushma
- Department of Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
| | - Anamika Saini
- Department of Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
| | - Amarjit Kaur
- Department of Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
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Sahoo BM, Bhattamisra SK, Das S, Tiwari A, Tiwari V, Kumar M, Singh S. Computational Approach to Combat COVID-19 Infection: Emerging Tool for Accelerating Drug Research. Curr Drug Discov Technol 2022; 19:e170122200314. [PMID: 35040405 DOI: 10.2174/1570163819666220117161308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2021] [Revised: 10/05/2021] [Accepted: 10/11/2021] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Drug discovery and development process is an expensive, complex, time-consuming and risky. There are different techniques involved in the drug development process which include random screening, computational approach, molecular manipulation and serendipitous research. Among these methods, the computational approach is considered as an efficient strategy to accelerate and economize the drug discovery process. OBJECTIVE This approach is mainly applied in various phases of drug discovery process including target identification, target validation, lead identification and lead optimization. Due to increase in the availability of information regarding various biological targets of different disease states, computational approaches such as molecular docking, de novo design, molecular similarity calculation, virtual screening, pharmacophore-based modeling and pharmacophore mapping have been applied extensively. METHODS Various drug molecules can be designed by applying computational tools to explore the drug candidates for treatment of Coronavirus infection. The world health organization has announced the novel corona virus disease as COVID-19 and declared it as pandemic globally on 11 February 2020. So, it is thought of interest to scientific community to apply computational methods to design and optimize the pharmacological properties of various clinically available and FDA approved drugs such as remdesivir, ribavirin, favipiravir, oseltamivir, ritonavir, arbidol, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, carfilzomib, baraticinib, prulifloxacin, etc for effective treatment of COVID-19 infection. RESULTS Further, various survey reports suggest that the extensive studies are carried out by various research communities to find out the safety and efficacy profile of these drug candidates. CONCLUSION This review is focused on the study of various aspects of these drugs related to their target sites on virus, binding interactions, physicochemical properties etc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Biswa Mohan Sahoo
- Roland Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Berhampur-760010, Odisha, India
| | - Subrat Kumar Bhattamisra
- Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, School of Medical Sciences, Adamas University, Jagannathpur, Kolkata-700126, West Bengal, India
| | - Sarita Das
- Microbiology Laboratory, Department of Botany, Berhampur University, Bhanja Bihar, Berhampur- 760007, Odisha, India
| | - Abhishek Tiwari
- Devasthali Vidyapeeth College of Pharmacy, Lalpur, Rudrapur-263148, Uttarakhand, India
| | - Varsha Tiwari
- Devasthali Vidyapeeth College of Pharmacy, Lalpur, Rudrapur-263148, Uttarakhand, India
| | - Manish Kumar
- M.M. College of Pharmacy, Maharishi Markandeshwar (Deemed to be University), Mullana, Ambala-133207, Haryana, India
| | - Sunil Singh
- Shri Sai College of Pharmacy, Handia, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, 221503, India
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44
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Elsaman T, Mohamed MS, Eltayib EM, Abdel-aziz HA, Abdalla AE, Munir MU, Mohamed MA. Isatin derivatives as broad-spectrum antiviral agents: the current landscape. Med Chem Res 2022; 31:244-273. [PMID: 35039740 PMCID: PMC8754539 DOI: 10.1007/s00044-021-02832-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2021] [Accepted: 12/02/2021] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
In recent decades, several viruses have resulted in large outbreaks with serious health, economic and social consequences. The current unprecedented outbreak of the new coronavirus, SARS-COV-2, necessitates intensive efforts for delivering effective therapies to eradicate such a deadly virus. Isatin is an opulent heterocycle that has been proven to provide tremendous opportunities in the area of drug discovery. Over the last fifty years, suitably functionalized isatin has shown remarkable and broad-spectrum antiviral properties. The review herein is an attempt to compile all of the reported information about the antiviral activity of isatin derivatives with an emphasis on their structure-activity relationships (SARs) along with mechanistic and molecular modeling studies. In this regard, we are confident that the review will afford the scientific community a valuable platform to generate more potent and cost-effective antiviral therapies based on isatin templates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tilal Elsaman
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, Jouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia
| | - Malik Suliman Mohamed
- Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, Jouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia
| | - Eyman Mohamed Eltayib
- Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, Jouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia
| | - Hatem A. Abdel-aziz
- Department of Applied Organic Chemistry, National Research Center, Dokki, Cairo, 12622 Egypt
| | - Abualgasim Elgaili Abdalla
- Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Jouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia
| | - Muhammad Usman Munir
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, Jouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia
| | - Magdi Awadalla Mohamed
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, Jouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia
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45
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Li M, Liu X, Zhang S, Liang S, Zhang Q, Chen J. Deciphering binding mechanism of inhibitors to SARS-COV-2 main protease through multiple replica accelerated molecular dynamics simulations and free energy landscapes. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:22129-22143. [DOI: 10.1039/d2cp03446h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
The pneumonia outbreak caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus poses a serious threat to human health and the world economy. Development of safe and highly effective antiviral drugs is of great...
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46
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Macip G, Garcia-Segura P, Mestres-Truyol J, Saldivar-Espinoza B, Pujadas G, Garcia-Vallvé S. A Review of the Current Landscape of SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors: Have We Hit the Bullseye Yet? Int J Mol Sci 2021; 23:259. [PMID: 35008685 PMCID: PMC8745775 DOI: 10.3390/ijms23010259] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2021] [Revised: 12/24/2021] [Accepted: 12/25/2021] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
In this review, we collected 1765 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) M-pro inhibitors from the bibliography and other sources, such as the COVID Moonshot project and the ChEMBL database. This set of inhibitors includes only those compounds whose inhibitory capacity, mainly expressed as the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value, against M-pro from SARS-CoV-2 has been determined. Several covalent warheads are used to treat covalent and non-covalent inhibitors separately. Chemical space, the variation of the IC50 inhibitory activity when measured by different methods or laboratories, and the influence of 1,4-dithiothreitol (DTT) are discussed. When available, we have collected the values of inhibition of viral replication measured with a cellular antiviral assay and expressed as half maximal effective concentration (EC50) values, and their possible relationship to inhibitory potency against M-pro is analyzed. Finally, the most potent covalent and non-covalent inhibitors that simultaneously inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 M-pro and the virus replication in vitro are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Gerard Pujadas
- Research Group in Cheminformatics & Nutrition, Departament de Bioquímica i Biotecnologia, Campus Sescelades, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43007 Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain; (G.M.); (P.G.-S.); (J.M.-T.); (B.S.-E.)
| | - Santiago Garcia-Vallvé
- Research Group in Cheminformatics & Nutrition, Departament de Bioquímica i Biotecnologia, Campus Sescelades, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43007 Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain; (G.M.); (P.G.-S.); (J.M.-T.); (B.S.-E.)
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47
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Agrawal PK, Agrawal C, Blunden G. Naringenin as a Possible Candidate Against SARS-CoV-2 Infection and in the Pathogenesis of COVID-19. Nat Prod Commun 2021. [DOI: 10.1177/1934578x211066723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Naringenin, widely distributed in fruits and vegetables, is endowed with antiviral and other health beneficial activities, such as immune-stimulating and anti-inflammatory actions that could play a role in contributing, to some extent, to either preventing or alleviating coronavirus infection. Several computational studies have identified naringenin as one of the prominent flavonoids that can possibly inhibit internalization of the virus, virus-host interactions that trigger the cytokine storm, and replication of the virus. This review highlights the antiviral potential of naringenin in COVID-19 associated risk factors and its predicted therapeutic targets against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pawan K. Agrawal
- Natural Product Inc., 7963 Anderson Park Lane, Westerville, OH 43081, USA
| | - Chandan Agrawal
- Natural Product Inc., 7963 Anderson Park Lane, Westerville, OH 43081, USA
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48
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Choudhury M, Dhanabalan AK, Goswami N. Understanding the binding mechanism for potential inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro and exploring the modes of ACE2 inhibition by hydroxychloroquine. J Cell Biochem 2021; 123:347-358. [PMID: 34741481 PMCID: PMC8657325 DOI: 10.1002/jcb.30174] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2021] [Revised: 10/23/2021] [Accepted: 10/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
As per the World Health Organization report, around 226 844 344 confirmed positive cases and 4 666 334 deaths are reported till September 17, 2021 due to the recent viral outbreak. A novel coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 [SARS‐CoV‐2]) is responsible for the associated coronavirus disease (COVID‐19), which causes serious or even fatal respiratory tract infection and yet no approved therapeutics or effective treatment is currently available to combat the outbreak. Due to the emergency, the drug repurposing approach is being explored for COVID‐19. In this study, we attempt to understand the potential mechanism and also the effect of the approved antiviral drugs against the SARS‐CoV‐2 main protease (Mpro). To understand the mechanism of inhibition of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) against SARS‐CoV‐2, we performed molecular interaction studies. The studies revealed that HCQ docked at the active site of the Human ACE2 receptor as a possible way of inhibition. Our in silico analysis revealed that the three drugs Lopinavir, Ritonavir, and Remdesivir showed interaction with the active site residues of Mpro. During molecular dynamics simulation, based on the binding free energy contributions, Lopinavir showed better results than Ritonavir and Remdesivir.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manisha Choudhury
- Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
| | - Anantha K Dhanabalan
- CAS in Crystallography and Biophysics, University of Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
| | - Nabajyoti Goswami
- Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility, College of Veterinary Science, Assam Agricultural University, Khanapara, Guwahati, Assam, India
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Mahoney M, Damalanka VC, Tartell MA, Chung DH, Lourenço AL, Pwee D, Mayer Bridwell AE, Hoffmann M, Voss J, Karmakar P, Azouz NP, Klingler AM, Rothlauf PW, Thompson CE, Lee M, Klampfer L, Stallings CL, Rothenberg ME, Pöhlmann S, Whelan SPJ, O'Donoghue AJ, Craik CS, Janetka JW. A novel class of TMPRSS2 inhibitors potently block SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV viral entry and protect human epithelial lung cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:e2108728118. [PMID: 34635581 PMCID: PMC8694051 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2108728118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The host cell serine protease TMPRSS2 is an attractive therapeutic target for COVID-19 drug discovery. This protease activates the Spike protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and of other coronaviruses and is essential for viral spread in the lung. Utilizing rational structure-based drug design (SBDD) coupled to substrate specificity screening of TMPRSS2, we have discovered covalent small-molecule ketobenzothiazole (kbt) TMPRSS2 inhibitors which are structurally distinct from and have significantly improved activity over the existing known inhibitors Camostat and Nafamostat. Lead compound MM3122 (4) has an IC50 (half-maximal inhibitory concentration) of 340 pM against recombinant full-length TMPRSS2 protein, an EC50 (half-maximal effective concentration) of 430 pM in blocking host cell entry into Calu-3 human lung epithelial cells of a newly developed VSV-SARS-CoV-2 chimeric virus, and an EC50 of 74 nM in inhibiting cytopathic effects induced by SARS-CoV-2 virus in Calu-3 cells. Further, MM3122 blocks Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) cell entry with an EC50 of 870 pM. MM3122 has excellent metabolic stability, safety, and pharmacokinetics in mice, with a half-life of 8.6 h in plasma and 7.5 h in lung tissue, making it suitable for in vivo efficacy evaluation and a promising drug candidate for COVID-19 treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew Mahoney
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO 63110
- ProteXase Therapeutics, Inc., Saint Louis, MO 63108
| | - Vishnu C Damalanka
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO 63110
| | - Michael A Tartell
- Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO 63110
- Program in Virology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115
| | - Dong Hee Chung
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158
| | - André Luiz Lourenço
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158
| | - Dustin Pwee
- Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093
| | - Anne E Mayer Bridwell
- Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO 63110
| | - Markus Hoffmann
- Infection Biology Unit, German Primate Center, Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen 37077, Germany
- Faculty of Biology and Psychology, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen 37077, Germany
| | - Jorine Voss
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO 63110
| | - Partha Karmakar
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO 63110
| | - Nurit P Azouz
- Division of Allergy and Immunology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45229
| | - Andrea M Klingler
- Division of Allergy and Immunology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45229
| | - Paul W Rothlauf
- Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO 63110
- Program in Virology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115
| | - Cassandra E Thompson
- Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO 63110
| | - Melody Lee
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158
| | | | - Christina L Stallings
- Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO 63110
| | - Marc E Rothenberg
- Division of Allergy and Immunology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45229
| | - Stefan Pöhlmann
- Infection Biology Unit, German Primate Center, Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen 37077, Germany
- Faculty of Biology and Psychology, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen 37077, Germany
| | - Sean P J Whelan
- Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO 63110
| | - Anthony J O'Donoghue
- Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093
| | - Charles S Craik
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158
| | - James W Janetka
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO 63110;
- ProteXase Therapeutics, Inc., Saint Louis, MO 63108
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50
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Macip G, Garcia-Segura P, Mestres-Truyol J, Saldivar-Espinoza B, Ojeda-Montes MJ, Gimeno A, Cereto-Massagué A, Garcia-Vallvé S, Pujadas G. Haste makes waste: A critical review of docking-based virtual screening in drug repurposing for SARS-CoV-2 main protease (M-pro) inhibition. Med Res Rev 2021; 42:744-769. [PMID: 34697818 PMCID: PMC8662214 DOI: 10.1002/med.21862] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2021] [Revised: 06/30/2021] [Accepted: 10/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
This review makes a critical evaluation of 61 peer‐reviewed manuscripts that use a docking step in a virtual screening (VS) protocol to predict SARS‐CoV‐2 M‐pro (M‐pro) inhibitors in approved or investigational drugs. Various manuscripts predict different compounds, even when they use a similar initial dataset and methodology, and most of them do not validate their methodology or results. In addition, a set of known 150 SARS‐CoV‐2 M‐pro inhibitors extracted from the literature and a second set of 81 M‐pro inhibitors and 113 inactive compounds obtained from the COVID Moonshot project were used to evaluate the reliability of using docking scores as feasible predictors of the potency of a SARS‐CoV‐2 M‐pro inhibitor. Using two SARS‐CoV‐2 M‐pro structures and five protein‐ligand docking programs, we proved that the correlation between the pIC50 and docking scores is not good. Neither was any correlation found between the pIC50 and the ∆G calculated with an MM‐GBSA method. When a group of experimentally known inactive compounds was added, neither the docking scores or the ∆G were able to distinguish between compounds with or without M‐pro experimental inhibitory activity. Performances improved when covalent and noncovalent inhibitors were treated separately, but were not good enough to fully support using a docking score as a cutoff value for selecting new putative M‐pro inhibitors or predicting the relative bioactivity of a compound by comparison with a reference compound. The two sets of known SARS‐CoV‐2 M‐pro inhibitors presented here could be used for validating future VS protocols which aim to predict M‐pro inhibitors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guillem Macip
- Departament de Bioquímica i Biotecnologia, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Research group in Cheminformatics & Nutrition, Tarragona, Tarragona, Spain
| | - Pol Garcia-Segura
- Departament de Bioquímica i Biotecnologia, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Research group in Cheminformatics & Nutrition, Tarragona, Tarragona, Spain
| | - Júlia Mestres-Truyol
- Departament de Bioquímica i Biotecnologia, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Research group in Cheminformatics & Nutrition, Tarragona, Tarragona, Spain
| | - Bryan Saldivar-Espinoza
- Departament de Bioquímica i Biotecnologia, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Research group in Cheminformatics & Nutrition, Tarragona, Tarragona, Spain
| | | | - Aleix Gimeno
- Joint IRB-BSC-CRG Program in Computational Biology, Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Adrià Cereto-Massagué
- EURECAT Centre Tecnològic de Catalunya, Centre for Omic Sciences (COS), Joint Unit Universitat Rovira i Virgili-EURECAT, Unique Scientific and Technical Infrastructures (ICTS), Reus, Spain
| | - Santiago Garcia-Vallvé
- Departament de Bioquímica i Biotecnologia, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Research group in Cheminformatics & Nutrition, Tarragona, Tarragona, Spain.,EURECAT, TECNIO, CEICS, Avinguda Universitat 1, Reus, Spain
| | - Gerard Pujadas
- Departament de Bioquímica i Biotecnologia, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Research group in Cheminformatics & Nutrition, Tarragona, Tarragona, Spain.,EURECAT, TECNIO, CEICS, Avinguda Universitat 1, Reus, Spain
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