An In silico Approach for Identification of Novel Inhibitors as a Potential Therapeutics Targeting HIV-1 Viral Infectivity Factor

Currently available antiviral drugs target the pol-encoded retroviral enzymes or integrases, in addition, inhibitors that target HIV-1 envelope-receptor interactions have also been recently approved. Recent understanding of the interactions between HIV-1 and host restriction factors has provided fresh avenues for development of novel antiviral drugs. For example, viral infectivity factor (Vif) now surfaced as an important therapeutic target in treatment of HIV infection. Vif suppresses A3G antiviral activity by targeting these proteins for polyubiquitination and proteasomal degradation. In the present study we analyzed the inhibitory potential of VEC5 and RN18 to inhibit the Vif-A3G interaction through protein- protein docking studies. Perusal of the study showed that, VEC5 and RN18 though inhibits the interaction however showed sub optimal potential. To overcome this set back, we identified 35 structural analogues of VEC5 and 18 analogues of RN18 through virtual screening approach. Analogue with PubCID 71624757 and 55358204 (AKOS006479723) -structurally akin to VEC5 and RN18 respectively showed much appreciable interaction than their respective parent compound. Evident from Vif-A3G; protein - protein docking studies, analogue PubCID 71624757 demonstrated 1.08 folds better inhibitory potential than its parent compound VEC5 while analogue PubCID 55358204 was 1.15 folds better than RN18. Further these analogues passed drug likeness filters and predicted to be non- toxic. We expect these analogues can be put to pharmacodynamic studies that can pave way the breakthrough in HIV therapeutics.