Molecular Docking and In-silico Pharmacokinetic Investigations towards Designing Multi-target Potent Dengue Virus Inhibitors with enhanced Pharmacokinetic Profile

AbstractThe widespread of dengue infection globally has become a great source of concern especially to developing countries with limited resources to control the spread of the dengue virus vector as such infection characterized by fever, joint pain, etc. may progress to a fatal phase such as dengue hemorrhagic fever and organ failure or dengue shock syndrome. An in-silico method using the DFT approach was employed for the geometric optimisation of phthalazinone derivatives with previously established interaction with NS2B-NS3 protease of dengue virus. Herein, molecular docking was employed to evaluate their biochemical interactions with dengue virus serotype 2 protease NS-5 as multi-target. Likewise, the ADME/PK property of the studied compounds was investigated. The molecular docking calculation showed that the previously reported compound 21 with the best potency against NS2B-NS3 protease had the best docking score of -9.0 kcal/mol against NS-5 protease. The physicochemical and ADME/PK properties result revealed that these compounds are orally bioavailable with high gastrointestinal absorption, and are all inhibitors of CYP-3A4 and CYP-2D6 except compound 7 which is a non-inhibitor of CYP-2D6. Also, all the compounds are substrates of P-glycoprotein. The information derived from this study can be utilized in the drug discovery process to improve the anti-dengue activity of the studied compounds. This study would provide physicochemical and pharmacokinetics properties required for the identification of potent anti-dengue drugs and other relevant information in drug discovery.