• Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
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• v.67
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• pp.293-300
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• 2018

Lipocalins are diverse group of small extracellular proteins found in various organisms. In this study, members of 10 non-homologous lipocalin-ligand crystal complex structures were remodeled using rigid and flexible ligand modes to validate the prediction efficiency of molecular docking simulation. The modeled ligand conformations indicated a high prediction accuracy in rigid ligand mode using cluster based analysis for most cases whereas the flexible ligand mode required further considerations such as ligand binding energy and RMSD for some cases. This in silico study is expected to serve as a platform in the screening of novel ligands against lipocalin family of proteins.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.50.1-50.12
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• 2022

Background: There is an urgent need to find reliable and rapid bovine tuberculosis (bTB) diagnostics in response to the rising prevalence of bTB worldwide. Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) recognizes components of bTB and initiates antigen-presenting cells to mediate humoral immunity. Evaluating the affinity of antigens with TLR2 can form the basis of a new method for the diagnosis of bTB based on humoral immunity. Objectives: To develop a reliable and rapid strategy to improve diagnostic tools for bTB. Methods: In this study, we expressed and purified the sixteen bTB-specific recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli. The two antigenic proteins, MPT70 and MPT83, which were most valuable for serological diagnosis of bTB were screened. Molecular docking technology was used to analyze the affinity of MPT70, MPT83, dominant epitope peptide of MPT70 (M1), and dominant epitope peptide MPT83 (M2) with TLR2, combined with the detection results of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to evaluate the molecular docking effect. Results: The results showed that interaction surface Cα-atom root mean square deviation of proteins (M1, M2, MPT70, MPT83)-TLR2 protein are less than 2.5 A, showing a high affinity. It is verified by clinical serum samples that MPT70, MPT83, MPT70-MPT83 showed good diagnostic potential for the detection of anti-bTB IgG and M1, M2 can replace the whole protein as the detection antigen. Conclusions: Molecular docking to evaluate the affinity of bTB protein and TLR2 combined with ELISA provides new insights for the diagnosis of bTB.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.67 no.4
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• pp.226-235
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• 2023

Chikungunya fever has a high morbidity rate in humans and is caused by chikungunya virus. There are no treatments available until now for this particular viral disease. The present study was carried out by selecting 19 flavonoids, which are available naturally in fruits, vegetables, tea, red wine and medicinal plants. The molecular docking of selected 19 flavonoids was carried out against the Chikungunya virus capsid protein using the Autodock4.2 software. Binding affinity analysis based on the Intermolecular interactions such as Hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions and drug-likeness properties for all the 19 flavonoids have been carried out and it is found that the top four molecules are Chrysin, Fisetin, Naringenin and Biochanin A as they fit to the chikungunya protein and have binding energy of -8.09, -8.01, -7.6, and 7.3 kcal/mol respectively. This result opens up the possibility of applying these compounds in the inhibition of chikungunya viral protein.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.64-70
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• 2014

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the leading cause of cancer mortality among women worldwide. The life-threatening infection caused by HPV demands the need for designing anticancerous drugs. In the recent years, different compounds from natural origins, such as carrageenan, curcumin, epigallocatechin gallate, indole-3-carbinol, jaceosidin, and withaferin, have been used as a hopeful source of anticancer therapy. These compounds have been shown to suppress HPV infection by different researchers. In the present study, we explored these natural inhibitors against E6 oncoprotein of high-risk HPV-16, which is known to inactivate the p53 tumor suppressor protein. A robust homology model of HPV-16 E6 was built to anticipate the interaction mechanism of E6 oncoprotein with natural inhibitory molecules using a structure-based drug designing approach. Docking analysis showed the interaction of these natural compounds with the p53-binding site of E6 protein residues 113-122 (CQKPLCPEEK) and helped the restoration of p53 functioning. Docking analysis, besides helping in silico validation of natural compounds, also helps understand molecular mechanisms of protein-ligand interactions.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.250-252
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• 2014

Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-$PLA_2$) is a crucial enzyme in atherosclerosis as a potential drug target. The most remarkable Lp-$PLA_2$ inhibitory drug is Darapladib. We determined the binding pose of Darapladib to Lp-$PLA_2$ through docking study. Darapladib formed two hydrogen bonding interactions with the side chain of Tyr160 and Gln352 and several pi-pi interactions with aromatic and aliphatic hydrophobic residues of Lp-$PLA_2$. It is known that the dietylpropan-amine moiety of Darapladib has influence on the improvement of its oral bioavailability and we supposed this in our docking results.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.283-288
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• 2014

Among all serious diseases globally, diabetes (type 1 and type 2) still poses a major challenge to the world population. Several target proteins have been identified, and the etiology causing diabetes has been reasonably well studied. But, there is still a gap in deciding on the choice of a drug, especially when the target is mutated. Mutations in the KCNJ11 gene, encoding the kir6.2 channel, are reported to be associated with congenital hyperinsulinism, having a major impact in causing type 1 diabetes, and due to the lack of its 3D structure, an attempt has been made to predict the structure of kir6.2, applying fold recognition methods. The current work is intended to investigate the affinity of four phytochemicals namely, curcumin (Curcuma longa), genistein (Genista tinctoria), piperine (Piper nigrum), and pterostilbene (Vitis vinifera) in a normal as well as in a mutant kir6.2 model by adopting a molecular docking methodology. The phytochemicals were docked in both wild and mutated kir6.2 models in two rounds: blind docking followed by ATP-binding pocket-specific docking. From the binding pockets, the common interacting amino acid residues participating strongly within the binding pocket were identified and compared. From the study, we conclude that these phytochemicals have strong affinity in both the normal and mutant kir6.2 model. This work would be helpful for further study of the phytochemicals above for the treatment of type 1 diabetes by targeting the kir6.2 channel.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.121-129
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• 2018

CXCR6 is a major target in drug design as it is a determinant receptor in many diseases like AIDS, Type I Diabetes, some cancer types, atherosclerosis, tumor formation, liver disease and steatohepatitis. In this study, we propose the active site residues of CXCR6 molecule. We employed homology modelling and molecular docking approach to generate the 3D structure for CXCR6 and to explore its interaction between the antagonists and agonists. 3D models were generated using 14 different templates having high sequence identity with CXCR6. Surflex docking studies using pyridine and pyrimidine derivatives enabled the analysis of the binding site and finding of the important residues involved in binding. 3D structure of CXCL16, a natural ligand for CXCR6, was modelled using PHYRE and protein - protein docking was performed using ClusPro. The residues which were found to be crucial in interaction with the ligand are THR110, PHE113, TYR114, GLN160, GLN195, CYS251 and SER255. This study can be used as a guide for therapeutic studies of human CXCR6.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.2097-2108
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• 2014

Chemical feature based quantitative pharmacophore models were generated using the HypoGen module implemented in DS2.5. The best hypothesis, Hypo1, which was characterized by the highest correlation coefficient (0.96), the highest cost difference (61.60) and the lowest RMSD (0.74), consisted of one hydrogen bond acceptor, one hydrogen bond donor, one hydrophobic and one ring aromatic. The reliability of Hypo1 was validated on the basis of cost analysis, test set, Fischer's randomization method and GH test method. The validated Hypo1 was used as a 3D search query to identify novel inhibitors. The screened molecules were further refined by employing ADMET, docking studies and visual inspection. Three compounds with novel scaffolds were selected as the most promising candidates for the designing of Mcl-1 antagonists. Finally, a 10 ns molecular dynamics simulation was carried out on the complex of receptor and the retrieved ligand to demonstrate that the binding mode was stable during the MD simulation.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.62-68
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• 2014

Coptis chinensis 3'-hydroxy-N-methylcoclaurine 4'-O-methyltransferase (HOMT), an essential enzyme in the berberine biosynthetic pathway, catalyzes the methylation of 3'-hydroxy-N-methylcoclaurine (HMC) producing reticuline. A 3D model of HOMT was constructed by homology modeling and further subjected to docking with its ligands and molecular dynamics simulations. The 3D structure of HOMT revealed unique structural features which permitted the methylation of HMC. The methylation of HMC was proposed to proceed by deprotonation of the 4'-hydroxyl group via His257 and Asp258 of HOMT, followed by a nucleophilic attack on the SAM-methyl group resulting in reticuline. HOMT showed high substrate specificity for methylation of HMC. The study evidenced that Gly117, Thr312 and Asp258 in HOMT might be the key residues for orienting substrate for specific catalysis.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.8
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• pp.2466-2472
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• 2013

Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) is a causative agent of Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), which has affected a large population of the world. Viral envelope glycoprotein (gp120) is an intrinsic protein for HIV-1 to enter into human host cells. Molecular docking guided molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was performed to explore the interaction mechanism of heterobiaryl derivative with gp120. MD simulation result of inhibitor-gp120 complex demonstrated stability. Our MD simulation results are consistent with most of the previous mutational and modeling studies. Inhibitor has an interaction with the CD4 binding region. Van der Waals interaction between inhibitor and Val255, Thr257, Asn425, Met426 and Trp427 were important. This preliminary MD model could be useful in exploiting heterobiaryl-gp120 interaction in greater detail, and will likely to shed lights for further utilization in the development of more potent inhibitors.