Repurposing of Potent Mtase Inhibitors Against ZIKV Utilizing Structure-Based Molecular Docking

Zika is an Aedes mosquito vector-borne pandemic viral disease. It is a goal for the scientists to destroy the virus completely by generating potent inhibitors. To explore the disease mechanism, various zika viral targets were explored. One of the major targets is Methyltransferase (Mtase), which is common with zika virus (ZIKV), dengue virus (DENV), and West Nile virus (WNV) belonging to the family of Flaviviridae. Therefore, an attempt has been made here to quest dengue virus and West Nile virus Mtase inhibitors, which could be repurposed on Zika virus inhibition by structure-based docking studies. The mode of interactions of 25 DENV and WNV inhibitors has been compared with natural reference drug sinefungin, which is a specific dengue virus and West Nile virus methyl transferase inhibitor. The docking results of compound numbers 4, 6, 10, 12, 13, 17, 18, and 20 exhibit the same mode of interaction with sinefungin. Therefore, these compounds could be proposed for a further experimental investigation to combat zika.