In silico evaluation of the affinity of antivirals against HCV NS5 protein in Zika virus

PARRA, MIGUEL; SALVATIERRA, KARINA; PIETRO MISCIONE, GIAN; MAHECHA, LAURA

Congreso; 22nd Annual Meeting of the European Society for Clinical Virology-ESCV; 2019

The viruses of flaviviridae family cause several diseases like hepatitis C (HCV) and others like zika (ZIKV) and dengue fever (DENV). According to the world health organization (WHO), HCV causes more than 71 million of infections worldwide. However, there are treatments for the disease using drugs designed against the NS5 protein of the virus (ARN polymerase). On the other hand, Zika virus continues to spread in different parts of the world and the recent epidemic of ZIKV in the Americas has been associated with fetal and neurological complications. Consequently, antivirals capable of inhibiting the replication of the Zika virus are necessary, because vaccines are not yet available to prevent the disease. For this reason,and knowing that structure of faviviridae family NS5 protein reveals a conserved domain conformation, we probed computationally the drugs designed against HCV on ZIKV. We use molecular dynamics and molecular docking to anchor the antivirals of HCV (Dasabuvir (ABT333), ABT-072, Filibuvir, GS-9669, Lomibuvir, Nesbuvir, and Setrobuvir) on ZIKV. The bioinformatic prediction was possible to determine a chemical interaction the antivirals with the active site of the NS5 polymerase of Zika virus. In this way, antivirals tested in this study are promising to move on to in vitro analysis models and could be use in the future as treatment for ZIKV and prevent the spread of the disease.