Identification of Inhibitor against Zika Virus NS3 Helicase

  Kirti Singh

Zika virus belongs to falvivirus family, which is an arbovirus. Mosquito Aedes aegypti is the primary vector of Zika virus. It was first isolated in year 1947 the Zika Forest of Uganda. Zika virus have had instances in past years, but it has recently been declared as a health emergency by World Health Organization. Symptoms of Zika virus share the resemblance of other flavivirus, Dengue virus. Non structural (NS) proteins of Zika virus have a key role in infection, amongst them NS3 helicase has been chosen as an area of interest in the following paper. NS3 helicase is required in unwinding of the RNA secondary structure in the template RNAs. Hence, knowing its essential role in genome replication, NS3 helicase could be an attractive target for drug development against Zika virus. In the following research bioinformatics approach of molecular docking has been selected, for the identification of potential drug against NS3 helicase. Four compounds, Benzoxazole, Suramin, Ivermectin and Ribavirin, which were already reported against other flaviviruses, viz Dengue and West nile virus, were docked against NS3 helicase. Two flavonoids were also docked with NS3 helicase, which are luteolin and catechin. The PDB structure of NS3 helicase was downloaded from RCSB Protein Data Bank and ligand were downloaded from ZINC and PubChem databases. Dock6 software was used for molecular docking which is based on geometric algorithm. Amongst all, Ribavirin was shown to bind successfully with NS3 helicase site 1 whereas catechin and luteolin was found to bind at site 2.

Keywords- Zika virus, flavivirus, molecular docking, NS3 Helicase, Dengue Virus, inhibitor, ligand.

Unique Identification Number - IJEDR1702202
Page Number(s) - 1249-1257
Pubished in - Volume 5 | Issue 2 | May 2017
DOI (Digital Object Identifier) -   
Publisher - IJEDR (ISSN - 2321-9939)

  Kirti Singh,   "Identification of Inhibitor against Zika Virus NS3 Helicase", International Journal of Engineering Development and Research (IJEDR), ISSN:2321-9939, Volume.5, Issue 2, pp.1249-1257, May 2017, Available at :http://www.ijedr.org/papers/IJEDR1702202.pdf