Cargando…

In Silico Prediction of the Phosphorylation of NS3 as an Essential Mechanism for Dengue Virus Replication and the Antiviral Activity of Quercetin

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Dengue is a mosquito-borne virus that infects up to 400 million people worldwide annually. Dengue infection triggers high fever, severe body aches, rash, low platelet count, and could lead to Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) in some cases. There is currently no cure, nor a broadly effe...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Alomair, Lamya, Almsned, Fahad, Ullah, Aman, Jafri, Mohsin S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8570334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34681164
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology10101067
_version_ 1784594820034985984
author Alomair, Lamya
Almsned, Fahad
Ullah, Aman
Jafri, Mohsin S.
author_facet Alomair, Lamya
Almsned, Fahad
Ullah, Aman
Jafri, Mohsin S.
author_sort Alomair, Lamya
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Dengue is a mosquito-borne virus that infects up to 400 million people worldwide annually. Dengue infection triggers high fever, severe body aches, rash, low platelet count, and could lead to Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) in some cases. There is currently no cure, nor a broadly effective vaccine. The interaction of two viral proteins, nonstructural Proteins 3 and 5 (NS3 and NS5), is required for viral replication in the infected host’s cells. Our computational modeling of NS3 suggested that phosphorylation of a serine residue at position 137 of NS3 by a specific c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) enhances viral replication by increasing the interaction of NS3 and NS5 through structural changes in amino acid residues 49–95. Experimental studies have shown that inhibition of JNK prevents viral replication and have suggested that the plants’ flavonoid Quercetin, Agathis flavone, and Myricetin inhibit Dengue infection. Our molecular simulations revealed that Quercetin binds NS3 and obstructs serine 137 phosphorylation, which may decrease viral replication. This work offers a molecular mechanism that can be used for anti-Dengue drug development. ABSTRACT: Dengue virus infection is a global health problem for which there have been challenges to obtaining a cure. Current vaccines and anti-viral drugs can only be narrowly applied in ongoing clinical trials. We employed computational methods based on structure-function relationships between human host kinases and viral nonstructural protein 3 (NS3) to understand viral replication inhibitors’ therapeutic effect. Phosphorylation at each of the two most evolutionarily conserved sites of NS3, serine 137 and threonine 189, compared to the unphosphorylated state were studied with molecular dynamics and docking simulations. The simulations suggested that phosphorylation at serine 137 caused a more remarkable structural change than phosphorylation at threonine 189, specifically located at amino acid residues 49–95. Docking studies supported the idea that phosphorylation at serine 137 increased the binding affinity between NS3 and nonstructural Protein 5 (NS5), whereas phosphorylation at threonine 189 decreased it. The interaction between NS3 and NS5 is essential for viral replication. Docking studies with the antiviral plant flavonoid Quercetin with NS3 indicated that Quercetin physically occluded the serine 137 phosphorylation site. Taken together, these findings suggested a specific site and mechanism by which Quercetin inhibits dengue and possible other flaviviruses.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8570334
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-85703342021-11-06 In Silico Prediction of the Phosphorylation of NS3 as an Essential Mechanism for Dengue Virus Replication and the Antiviral Activity of Quercetin Alomair, Lamya Almsned, Fahad Ullah, Aman Jafri, Mohsin S. Biology (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: Dengue is a mosquito-borne virus that infects up to 400 million people worldwide annually. Dengue infection triggers high fever, severe body aches, rash, low platelet count, and could lead to Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) in some cases. There is currently no cure, nor a broadly effective vaccine. The interaction of two viral proteins, nonstructural Proteins 3 and 5 (NS3 and NS5), is required for viral replication in the infected host’s cells. Our computational modeling of NS3 suggested that phosphorylation of a serine residue at position 137 of NS3 by a specific c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) enhances viral replication by increasing the interaction of NS3 and NS5 through structural changes in amino acid residues 49–95. Experimental studies have shown that inhibition of JNK prevents viral replication and have suggested that the plants’ flavonoid Quercetin, Agathis flavone, and Myricetin inhibit Dengue infection. Our molecular simulations revealed that Quercetin binds NS3 and obstructs serine 137 phosphorylation, which may decrease viral replication. This work offers a molecular mechanism that can be used for anti-Dengue drug development. ABSTRACT: Dengue virus infection is a global health problem for which there have been challenges to obtaining a cure. Current vaccines and anti-viral drugs can only be narrowly applied in ongoing clinical trials. We employed computational methods based on structure-function relationships between human host kinases and viral nonstructural protein 3 (NS3) to understand viral replication inhibitors’ therapeutic effect. Phosphorylation at each of the two most evolutionarily conserved sites of NS3, serine 137 and threonine 189, compared to the unphosphorylated state were studied with molecular dynamics and docking simulations. The simulations suggested that phosphorylation at serine 137 caused a more remarkable structural change than phosphorylation at threonine 189, specifically located at amino acid residues 49–95. Docking studies supported the idea that phosphorylation at serine 137 increased the binding affinity between NS3 and nonstructural Protein 5 (NS5), whereas phosphorylation at threonine 189 decreased it. The interaction between NS3 and NS5 is essential for viral replication. Docking studies with the antiviral plant flavonoid Quercetin with NS3 indicated that Quercetin physically occluded the serine 137 phosphorylation site. Taken together, these findings suggested a specific site and mechanism by which Quercetin inhibits dengue and possible other flaviviruses. MDPI 2021-10-19 /pmc/articles/PMC8570334/ /pubmed/34681164 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology10101067 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Alomair, Lamya
Almsned, Fahad
Ullah, Aman
Jafri, Mohsin S.
In Silico Prediction of the Phosphorylation of NS3 as an Essential Mechanism for Dengue Virus Replication and the Antiviral Activity of Quercetin
title In Silico Prediction of the Phosphorylation of NS3 as an Essential Mechanism for Dengue Virus Replication and the Antiviral Activity of Quercetin
title_full In Silico Prediction of the Phosphorylation of NS3 as an Essential Mechanism for Dengue Virus Replication and the Antiviral Activity of Quercetin
title_fullStr In Silico Prediction of the Phosphorylation of NS3 as an Essential Mechanism for Dengue Virus Replication and the Antiviral Activity of Quercetin
title_full_unstemmed In Silico Prediction of the Phosphorylation of NS3 as an Essential Mechanism for Dengue Virus Replication and the Antiviral Activity of Quercetin
title_short In Silico Prediction of the Phosphorylation of NS3 as an Essential Mechanism for Dengue Virus Replication and the Antiviral Activity of Quercetin
title_sort in silico prediction of the phosphorylation of ns3 as an essential mechanism for dengue virus replication and the antiviral activity of quercetin
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8570334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34681164
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology10101067
work_keys_str_mv AT alomairlamya insilicopredictionofthephosphorylationofns3asanessentialmechanismfordenguevirusreplicationandtheantiviralactivityofquercetin
AT almsnedfahad insilicopredictionofthephosphorylationofns3asanessentialmechanismfordenguevirusreplicationandtheantiviralactivityofquercetin
AT ullahaman insilicopredictionofthephosphorylationofns3asanessentialmechanismfordenguevirusreplicationandtheantiviralactivityofquercetin
AT jafrimohsins insilicopredictionofthephosphorylationofns3asanessentialmechanismfordenguevirusreplicationandtheantiviralactivityofquercetin