1 research outputs found
A Virtual Screening Approach For Identifying Plants with Anti H5N1 Neuraminidase Activity
Recent
outbreaks of highly pathogenic and occasional drug-resistant influenza
strains have highlighted the need to develop novel anti-influenza
therapeutics. Here, we report computational and experimental efforts
to identify influenza neuraminidase inhibitors from among the 3000
natural compounds in the Malaysian-Plants Natural-Product (NADI) database.
These 3000 compounds were first docked into the neuraminidase active
site. The five plants with the largest number of top predicted ligands
were selected for experimental evaluation. Twelve specific compounds
isolated from these five plants were shown to inhibit neuraminidase,
including two compounds with IC<sub>50</sub> values less than 92 μM.
Furthermore, four of the 12 isolated compounds had also been identified
in the top 100 compounds from the virtual screen. Together, these
results suggest an effective new approach for identifying bioactive
plant species that will further the identification of new pharmacologically
active compounds from diverse natural-product resources