Computer aided drug design

Kandil, Sahar ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1806-9623 2009. Computer aided drug design. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.

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Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) chronic infection represents one of the major and still unresolved health problems. HCV infecting 3% of the world population, leading to chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma in addition to the extrahepatic manifestations. No efficient therapy exists; the standard dual treatment with peg IFN-alpha and ribavirin is effective only in 55% of the selected cases with substantial side effects in addition to the high cost. To date, there is no vaccine against HCV due to the high variability of the RNA genome. NS3 helicase is one of the non-structural proteins whose activity is indispensable for viral RNA replication and its inhibition is estimated to arrest viral proliferation and indirectly stimulate a cellular antiviral response against ds RNA. In our project we proposed to use structure based knowledge of the x-ray crystal structure of helicase enzyme to design and synthesise different scaffolds of novel potential HCV NS3 helicase inhibitors. Using different computer software packages, we manage to design a number of small focused libraries of compounds, which were used for docking simulations. The results obtained in silico guided the selection of two series of promising compounds for synthesis. In the first series; several quinazoline derivatives were prepared and evaluated for antiviral activity in subgenomic replicon assay showing EC50 in the low muM range with relatively high selectivity index. In the second series of pyrrole or phenyl based compounds, irreversible inhibition of helicase is assumed through addition to the electrophilic warheads of the alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones, thiols or 1,2,4 thiadiazoles based inhibitors. Among the synthesised compounds a number showed a sub muM activity in the helicase enzyme assay. These promising findings are considered to be a starting point for further optimisation of structure, activity and toxicity relationships.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Pharmacy
ISBN:	9781303189432
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	25 Oct 2022 08:50
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/55845

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