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Research Publications (Applied Sciences)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://ir-dev.dut.ac.za/handle/10321/213

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Docking

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    Larvicidal Activities of 2-Aryl-2,3-Dihydroquinazolin-4-ones against Malaria Vector Anopheles arabiensis, in Silico ADMET prediction and molecular target investigation
    (MDPI, 2020-03-02) Venugopala, Katharigatta Narayanaswamy; Ramachandra, Pushpalatha; Tratrat, Christophe; Gleiser, Raquel M.; Bhandary, Subhrajyoti; Chopra, Deepak; Morsy, Mohamed A.; Aldhubiab, Bandar E.; Attimarad, Mahesh; Nair, Anroop B.; Sreeharsha, Nagaraja; Venugopala, Rashmi; Deb, Pran Kishore; Chandrashekharappa, Sandeep; Khalil, Hany Ezzat; Alwassil, Osama I.; Abed, Sara Nidal; Bataineh, Yazan A.; Palenge, Ramachandra; Haroun, Michelyne; Pottathil, Shinu; Girish, Meravanige B.; Akrawi, Sabah H.; Mohanlall, Viresh
    Malaria, affecting all continents, remains one of the life-threatening diseases introduced by parasites that are transmitted to humans through the bites of infected Anopheles mosquitoes. Although insecticides are currently used to reduce malaria transmission, their safety concern for living systems, as well as the environment, is a growing problem. Therefore, the discovery of novel, less toxic, and environmentally safe molecules to effectively combat the control of these vectors is in high demand. In order to identify new potential larvicidal agents, a series of 2-aryl-1,2-dihydroquinazolin-4-one derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their larvicidal activity against Anopheles arabiensis. The in silico absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) properties of the compounds were also investigated and most of the derivatives possessed a favorable ADMET profile. Computational modeling studies of the title compounds demonstrated a favorable binding interaction against the acetylcholinesterase enzyme molecular target. Thus, 2-aryl-1,2-dihydroquinazolin-4-ones were identified as a novel class of Anopheles arabiensis insecticides which can be used as lead molecules for the further development of more potent and safer larvicidal agents for treating malaria.
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    Antimycobacterial, docking and molecular dynamic studies of pentacyclic triterpenes from Buddleja saligna leaves
    (Taylor and Fancis Online, 2017) Singh, Alveera; Venugopala, Katharigatta Narayanaswamy; Khedr, Mohammed A.; Pillay, Mellendran; Nwaeze, Kenneth U.; Coovadia, Yacoob; Shode, Francis; Odhav, Bharti
    Buddleja saligna (family Buddlejaceae) is a medicinal plant endemic to South Africa. Two isomeric pentacyclic triterpenes, oleanolic acid and ursolic acid, were isolated from the leaves of B. saligna using silica gel column chromatography. Compounds oleanolic acid and ursolic acid were subjected to derivatization with acetic anhydride in the presence of pyridine to obtain oleanolic acid-3-acetate and ursolic acid-3-acetate, respectively. The structures of these compounds were fully characterized by detailed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) investigations, which included 1H and 13C NMR. Molecular docking studies predicted the free binding energy of the four triterpenes inside the steroid binding pocket of Mycobacterium tuberculosis fadA5 thiolase compared to a reported inhibitor. Thus, their ability to inhibit the growth of M. tuberculosis was predicted and was confirmed to possess significant antimycobacterial activity when tested against Mycobacterium smegmatis, M. tuberculosis H37Rv (ATCC 25177), clinical isolates of multi-drug-resistant M. tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant M. tuberculosis (XDR-TB) using the Micro Alamar Blue Assay. Ursolic acid was isolated from this plant for the first time.
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    PKR-inhibitor binds efficiently with human microtubule affinity-regulating kinase 4
    (Elsevier, 2015) Naz, Farha; Shahbaaz, Mohd; Khan, Shama; Bisetty, Krishna; Islam, Asimul; Ahmad, Faizan; Hassan, Md. Imtaiyaz
    MAP/microtubule affinity-regulating kinase 4 (MARK4) plays a central role in the cellular physiology, and it is inseparably linked with many human diseases including cancer, diet induced obesity, type2 diabetes and neurodegenerative disorders. Here, we studied the interaction of PKR-inhibitor with two variants of human MARK4. One variant is named as MARK4-F1 which has 59 N-terminal residues along with kinase domain while another variant is MARK4-F2 which has kinase domain only. Molecular-docking, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and fluorescence-binding studies were undertaken to understand the role of N-terminal 59-residues in the binding of substrate/inhibitors. Molecular docking studies revealed that the PKR-inhibitor binds in the large hydrophobic cavity of the kinase domain of MARK4 through several hydrophobic and hydrogen-bonded interactions. Furthermore, MD simulation showed a stable param-eters for the complexes of both MARK4-F1 and MARK4-F2 to PKR-inhibitor with marginal difference in their binding affinities. A significant decrease in the fluorescence intensity of MARK4 was observed on successive addition of the PKR-inhibitor. Using fluorescence data we have calculated the binding-affinity and the number of binding site of PKR-inhibitor to the MARK4. A significantly high binding affinity was observed for the PKR-inhibitor to the MARK4 variants. However, there is no any significant difference in the binding affinity of PKR-inhibitor to the MARK4 variants was observed, indicating that 59 N-terminal residues of MARK4-F1 are not playing a crucial role in the ligand binding. The present study will pro-vide an insights into designing of new PKR-inhibitor derivative as potent and selective therapeutic agent against many life threatening diseases which are associated with MARK4.