Homology modeling of the orthoflavivirus NS1 protein for virtual screening of potential ligands

The orthoflavivirus NS1 protein is a relatively understudied target for the design of broad-spectrum anti-orthoflaviviral drugs. Currently, the NS1 protein structures of tick-borne orthoflaviviruses have not been published yet, but these structures can be modelled by homology, thus generating a large amount of structural data. We performed homology modelling of the NS1 protein structures of epidemiologically significant orthoflaviviruses and analysed the possibility of using these models in ensemble docking-based virtual screening. The limitations of the method and the importance of separating the models based on the vector organism when selecting an ensemble have been demonstrated.