Drug and Anti-Viral Peptide Design to Inhibit the Monkeypox Virus by Restricting A36R Protein

Most recently, monkeypox virus (MPXV) has emanated as a global public health threat. Unavailability of effective medicament against MPXV escalates demand for new therapeutic agent. In this study, in silico strategies were conducted to identify novel drug against the A36R protein of MPXV. The A36R protein of MPXV is responsible for the viral migration, adhesion, and vesicle trafficking to the host cell. To block the A36R protein, 4893 potential antiviral peptides (AVPs) were retrieved from DRAMP and SATPdb databases. Finally, 57 sequences were screened based on peptide filtering criteria, which were then modeled. Likewise, 31 monkeypox virus A36R protein sequences were collected from NCBI protein database to find consensus sequence and to predict 3D protein model. The refined and validated models of the A36R protein and AVP peptides were used to predict receptor-ligand interactions using DINC 2 server. Three peptides that showed best interactions were SATPdb10193, SATPdb21850, and SATPdb26811 with binding energies -6.10, -6.10, and -6.30 kcal/mol, respectively. Small molecules from drug databases were also used to perform virtual screening against the A36R protein. Among databases, Enamine-HTSC showed strong affinity with docking scores ranging from -8.8 to 9.8 kcal/mol. Interaction of target protein A36R with the top 3 peptides and the most probable drug (Z55287118) examined by molecular dynamic (MD) simulation. Trajectory analyses (RMSD, RMSF, SASA, and Rg) confirmed the stable nature of protein-ligand and protein-peptide complexes. This work suggests that identified top AVPs and small molecules might interfere with the function of the A36R protein of MPXV.