Molecular docking studies with rabies virus glycoprotein to design viral therapeutics

The genome of rabies virus encodes five proteins; the nucleoprotein, the phosphoprotein, the matrix protein, the glycoprotein, and the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Among these, the glycoprotein is the most important as it is the major contributor to pathogenicity and virus neutralizing antibody response. Keeping in mind that glycoprotein is the only protein exposed on the surface of virus and is thought to be responsible for the interaction with the cell membrane, it was attempted to target glycoprotein by a ligand polyethylene glycol 4000, which blocks its active site, as seen by molecular operating environment software, so that it may be possible to prevent the spread of virus into the host. The ligand polyethylene glycol 4000 was retrieved from Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics protein data bank by providing the glycoprotein sequence to the databank. In this study it was observed that the ligand was successfully docked on a major portion of antigenic site II of glycoprotein by mimicking the virus neutralizing antibodies. This knowledge may be important for the development of novel therapies for the treatment of rabies and other viral diseases in the future.