Synthesis, characterization, DFT and molecular docking study of an antiviral drug, the crystallized 6-methoxylated derivative of favipiravir, in the presence of an iron (III) Lewis acid.

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Few years ago, the COVID-19 infection, caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, presented a worldwide health pandemic that taken the life of millions of people. In this concern, Favipiravir (FAV) has attracted considerable attention as an effective antiviral drug against this disease. In this study, the favipiravir's derivative (3‑hydroxy-6-methoxypyrazine-2-carboxamide) was synthetized, in presence of iron (III), and fully characterized through various analytical techniques including single-XRay, IR, UV and 1H/13C NMR. The refinement show the exclusive existence of enol form in the solid state. In solution, UV and NMR data were used to highlight the tautomeric equilibrium of this molecule. Additionally, the density functional theory (DFT) calculations were achieved to estimate the chemical parameters, electronic affinity and molecular electrostatic potential of the compound. Mulliken atomic charges as well as the chemical reactivity descriptors were investigated. Finally, the two tautomer forms of synthetized derivative were docked on SARS-CoV-2 main protease (PDB: 6LU7) and spike receptor-binding domain (PDB: 7BZ5) to evaluate their binding affinity. The docking simulation studies was predicted that the two forms had high binding affinity the critical amino acids residues of the receptor. This affinity was attributed to the presence of several hydrogen bonds for both tautomer along with five different hydrophobic interactions with the enol form. These results conduct to conclude that the synthetized product could be an interest potential drug for that type of diseases.