Discovery of novel Hepatitis C virus inhibitor targeting multiple allosteric sites of NS5B polymerase

Abstract

HCV is a viral infection posing a severe global threat when left untreated progress to end-stage liver disease, including cirrhosis and HCC. The NS5B polymerase of HCV is the most potent target that harbors four allosteric binding sites that could interfere with the HCV infection. We present the discovery of a novel synthetic compound that harbors the potential of NS5B polymerase inhibition. All eight compounds belonging to the benzothiazine family of heterocycles displayed no cellular cytotoxicity in HepG2 cells at nontoxic dose concentration (200 μM). Subsequently, among eight compounds of the series, merely compound 5b exhibited significant inhibition of the expression of the HCV NS5B gene as compared to DMSO control in semi-quantitative PCR. Based on our western blot result, 5b at the range of 50, 100 and 200 μM induced 20, 40, and 70% inhibition of NS5B protein respectively. To estimate the binding potential, 5b was docked at respective allosteric sites followed by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for a period of 20 ns. In addition, binding free energy calculation by MM-GB/PBSA method revealed a conserved interaction profile of residues lining the allosteric sites in agreement with the reported NS5B co-crystallized inhibitors. The presented results provide important information about a novel compound 5b which may facilitate the the discovery of novel inhibitors that tends to target multiple sites on NS5B polymerase.