Determination of ligand cluster and binding site within VP40 of Ebola virus: clue for drug development

Beuy Joob， Viroj Wiwanitkit

1Sanitation 1 Medical Academic Center， Bangkok Thailand

2Surin Rajabhat University， Thailand

3Hainan Medical University， China

4Faculty of Medicine， University of Nis， Serbia

5Joseph Ayobabalola University， Nigeria

6Dr DY Patil Medical University， India

Determination of ligand cluster and binding site within VP40 of Ebola virus: clue for drug development

Beuy Joob1*， Viroj Wiwanitkit2，3，4，5，6

1Sanitation 1 Medical Academic Center， Bangkok Thailand

2Surin Rajabhat University， Thailand

3Hainan Medical University， China

4Faculty of Medicine， University of Nis， Serbia

5Joseph Ayobabalola University， Nigeria

6Dr DY Patil Medical University， India

Dear Editor， Ebola virus infection is the present public health threat that posed the trend of worldwide pandemic［1］. At present，there is still no eff ective drug and vaccine for treatment of Ebola virus infection. An important basic knowledge for further Ebola drug and vaccine development is the ligand system within the viral molecule. For the Ebola virus， the study of its ligand can give the basic require knowledge on this new virus［2］. Focusing on the Ebola viral molecule， VP40 is mentioned as a possible drug and vaccine target［3］. Stahelin noted that 'a number of studies have demonstrated specific deletions or mutations of VP40 to abrogate viral egress but to date pharmacological inhibition of VP40 has not been demonstrated［3］.' To identify the ligand within the VP40 molecule can be the clue for further specifi c drug acting on VP40 search. In this study， the author hereby determines ligand cluster and binding site within VP40 of Ebola virus. The standard bioinformatics technique， structural homology assessment， was used for searching［4］. According to this study， the ligand cluster and binding site within VP35， VP40 of Ebola virus is identified. The ligand cluster with MAMMOTH score equal to 8.1 was identifi ed and there were 3 identifi ed binding sites （position 208，216， 249） （Figure 1）. The identifi ed ligand cluster and binding site from this preliminary report can be used as information for further development of antiviral drug and vaccine to combat Ebola virus infection.

Figure 1. Identifi ed ligands.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank US NIH for inviting the author to present this report in the 17 th International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases 2015， Taipei， Taiwan.

［1］ Wiwanitkit V. Ebola virus infection: what should be known？ N Am J Med Sci 2014； 6（11）: 549-552.

［2］ Côté M， Misasi J， Ren T， Bruchez A， Lee K， Filone CM， et al. Small molecule inhibitors reveal Niemann-Pick C1 is essential for Ebola virus infection. Nature 2011； 477（7364）: 344-348.

［3］ Stahelin RV. Could the Ebola virus matrix protein VP40 be a drug target？ Expert Opin Ther Targets 2014； 18（2）: 115-120.

［4］ Wass MN， Kelley LA， Sternberg MJ. 3DLigandSite: predicting ligandbinding sites using similar structures. Nucleic Acids Res 2010； 38（Web Server issue）: W469-W473.

ent heading

10.1016/j.apjtm.2016.03.002

Beuy Joob， Sanitation 1 Medical Academic Center， Bangkok Thailand.

E-mail: beuyjoob@hotmail.com