Bixinoids Derived from Bixa orellana as a Potential Zika Virus Inhibitor Using Molecular Simulations. Antiviral Effect on the Zika Virus of Bixinoids

Abstract

Zika fever is a viral infection of great relevance in public health, especially in tropic regions, in which there is a predominance of mosquitoes of the genus Aedes, vectors of the disease. Microcephaly in neonatal children and Guillain-Barre syndrome in adults can be caused by the action of the Zika virus (ZIKV). Non-structural proteins, such as NS2B, NS3 and NS5, are important pharmacological targets, due to their action in the life cycle. The absence of anti-Zika drugs raises new research, including prospecting for natural products. This work investigated the in silico antiviral activity of bixin and six other derived molecules against the Zika viral proteins NS2B-NS3 and NS5. The optimized structure was subjected to molecular docking to characterize the interaction between bixinoids and ZIKV non-structural proteins, where significant interactions were observed with amino acid residues in the catalytic site in each enzyme. These results suggest that bixin and ethyl bixin has the potential to interfere with the enzymatic activity of NS2B, NS3 and NS5, thus being an indication of being a promising anti-Zika agent.