Discovery of a non-peptidic inhibitor of west nile virus NS3 protease by high-throughput docking.

• Published in: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
• Main Authors: Dariusz Ekonomiuk, Xun-Cheng Su, Kiyoshi Ozawa, Christophe Bodenreider, Siew Pheng Lim, Zheng Yin, Thomas H Keller, David Beer, Viral Patel, Gottfried Otting, Amedeo Caflisch, Danzhi Huang
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2009
• Subjects: Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000356; https://doaj.org/article/d97a5dd5a6634165b127e4c93e17b4e7

BACKGROUND: The non-structural 3 protease (NS3pro) is an essential flaviviral enzyme and therefore one of the most promising targets for drug development against West Nile virus (WNV) and dengue infections. METHODOLOGY: In this work, a small-molecule inhibitor of the WNV NS3pro has been identified by automatic fragment-based docking of about 12000 compounds and testing by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy of only 22 molecules. Specific binding of the inhibitor into the active site of NS3pro and its binding mode are confirmed by 15N-HSQC NMR spectra. The inhibitory activity is further validated by an enzymatic assay and a tryptophan fluorescence quenching assay. CONCLUSION: The inhibitor [4-(carbamimidoylsulfanylmethyl)-2,5-dimethylphenyl]-methylsulfanylmethanimidamide has a good ratio of binding affinity versus molecular weight (ligand efficiency of 0.33 kcal/mol per non-hydrogen atom), and thus has good potential as lead compound for further development to combat West Nile virus infections.