In-silico Structural and Molecular Docking-Based Drug Discovery Against Viral Protein (VP35) of Marburg Virus: A potent Agent of MAVD

ABSTRACT The Marburg virus (MARV) is a highly etiological agent of hemorrhagic fever in humans. MARV has spread across the world, including America, Australia, Europe, and different Asia countries. However, there is no approved vaccine to combat MARV, combined with a high mortality rate, which makes antiviral drugs against MARV urgent. The viral protein (VP35) is a core protein of MARV that involves multiple functions of the infection cycle. This research used an in-silico drug design technique to discover the new drug-like small molecules that inhibit VP35 replication. First, several combinations of ∼ 4260 showed that structure-based similarity above 90% was retrieved from an online “PubChem” database. Molecular docking was performed using AutoDock 4.2, and ligands were selected based on docking / S score lower than reference CID_5477931 and RMSD value between 1-2. Finally, about 50 compounds showed greater bonding producing hydrogen, Van der Waals, and polar interactions with VP35. After evaluating their binding energy strength and ADMET analysis, only CID_ 3007938 and CID_11427396 were finalized, which showed the most vital binding energy and a strong inhibitory effect with MARV’s VP35. The higher binding energy, suitable ADMET, and drug similarity parameters suggest that these “CID_ 3007938 and CID_11427396” candidates have incredible latency to inhibit MARV replication; hence, these strengths led to the treatment of MAVD.