Shoko Ryman, Mazadza Allen
Department of Biology, School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Chinhoyi University of Technology, Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe.
Biomed Eng Comput Biol. 2024 Nov 10;15:11795972241294112. doi: 10.1177/11795972241294112. eCollection 2024.
Schistosomiasis, which causes over 200 000 deaths annually, has since the 1970s been controlled by praziquintel. The reliance on a single drug to combat schistosomiasis, and reports of laboratory resistance to the drug, has created an urgent need in the scientific community to develop new chemotherapies to complement or supplement praziquantel. Medicinal plants are a potential reservoir of compounds with schistosomicidal activity. In the current study, we carried out computer-aided screening of compounds to discover compounds with potential to inhibit purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP). Thus, 99 compounds retrieved from Lotus Natural Compounds Database were docked into the active site of PNP. The top-ranked compounds were subjected to Lipinski's druglikeness and toxicity risk predictions. Three lead compounds, abrusogenin, cirsimaritin and hispidulin, were identified as having high binding affinities, favourable interactions with PNP active site residues and good toxicity risk prediction results. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to assess the stability of the interactions of these lead compounds with PNP. Collectively, analyses of the MD trajectories confirms that the lead compounds bound and interacted stably with active site residues of PNP. We conclude that abrusogenin, cirsimaritin and hispidulin could serve as hit compounds for the development of new antischistosomal drugs, based on plant-derived natural products. However, experimental studies are required to further evaluate the potentials of these compounds as possible therapeutics against schistosomiasis.
血吸虫病每年导致超过20万人死亡,自20世纪70年代以来一直由吡喹酮控制。由于依赖单一药物来对抗血吸虫病,以及有该药物在实验室出现耐药性的报道,科学界迫切需要开发新的化学疗法来补充或替代吡喹酮。药用植物是具有杀血吸虫活性化合物的潜在来源。在本研究中,我们对化合物进行了计算机辅助筛选,以发现具有抑制嘌呤核苷磷酸化酶(PNP)潜力的化合物。因此,从莲花天然化合物数据库中检索出的99种化合物被对接至PNP的活性位点。对排名靠前的化合物进行了类药五原则和毒性风险预测。三种先导化合物,相思子皂苷元、cirsimaritin和滨蓟黄素,被确定具有高结合亲和力、与PNP活性位点残基的良好相互作用以及良好的毒性风险预测结果。分子动力学(MD)模拟用于评估这些先导化合物与PNP相互作用的稳定性。总体而言,对MD轨迹的分析证实了先导化合物与PNP的活性位点残基稳定结合并相互作用。我们得出结论,基于植物来源的天然产物,相思子皂苷元、cirsimaritin和滨蓟黄素可作为开发新型抗血吸虫药物的活性化合物。然而,需要进行实验研究以进一步评估这些化合物作为抗血吸虫病可能治疗药物的潜力。