Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic fever is a deadly infection of CCHFV. CCHFV is a biosafety level 4 virus. In this presentation the general introduction to the CCHF and CCHFV is given along with various computational drug design approaches for CCHF
3. • Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever is a disease caused by an Arbovirus, CCHFV with
a mortality rate of 6% to 50%
• The first description of hemorrhagic fever similar to that of CCHF was done in 12th
century
• Officially it was first described, in 1940s in the Crimean peninsula, and later in 1956 in
Congo
• It is geographically widespread, ranging from the Middle East and Asia to South Africa
and Eastern Europe
• CCHFV is biosafety level-4 virus making it difficult to study
Introduction:
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Mendoza, E., et al.,, Zoonoses Public Health. 2018, 65, 465-480.
4. Epidemiology:
• The disease is endemic in many countries in Africa, Europe and Asia, and outbreaks
have been recorded in Kosovo, Albania, Islamic Republic of Iran, Pakistan, India, and
South Africa among other countries
• In between 2002 – 2008 , 2508 cases of CCHF with 133 deaths have been reported in
Turkey alone
• In September, 2010 an outbreak was reported in Pakistan with a case-fatality rate above
10%
• In SEAR, the first laboratory confirmed case was reported on 19 January, 2011 in
Gujarat state of India
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http://www.searo.who.int/entity/emerging_diseases/links/CCHF_Fact_Sheet_SEARO.pdf (21 nov 10:30am).
5. Scenario in India:
• In India first case of CCHF was reported in Jan 2011, in Gujarat, then there was a
nosocomial outbreak talking 3 lives
• Again in 2013, there was a outbreak in Karyana village, Amreli district, Gujarat State
• CCHF-positive and fatal human cases were reported from Patan, Rajkot, Surendranagar,
and Ahmadabad districts in Gujarat State
• In may 2018, CCHF was reported in Sirohi district, Rajasthan state
Mishra et al., Lancet. 2011, 378, 372.
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6. Causative agent:
• CCHFV is a second most widely distributed arbovirus after dengue virus
• Classification:
• Virion structure and molecular biology:
Flick, R.et al., Curr. Mol. Med. 2005, 5, 753-760. Contd…
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7. • Transmission of virus:
Small
Mammals
and birds
Nymph
Larva
Drop off
and Molt
Oviposition
and Hatching
Adult
Humans
(Nosocomial transmissions)
Contd…
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Aslam, S., et al.,, Biomed Rep. 2016, 4, 15-20.
8. Pathophysiology:
CCHFV
Tick bite
Entry from epithelium
Basolateral compartment
Release in the endothelial cells
Basolateral compartment
Spread into the blood stream
Dissemination into liver and
other tissues
Release of cytokines
Upregulation of the adhesion
molecules Damage of the immune system
Necrosis with little or no
inflammation
Activation of Endothelial cells and damage of the endothelium Uncontrolled viral
replication
Initiation of the inflammatory reactions
Intrinsic coagulation
cascade activated
Vascular permeability and
vasodilation are increased
Disseminated intravascular
coagulation
Hypotension, multiple organ
failure and shockHemorrhages
Liver dysfunction
Hemophagocytosis
CCHFV
Infected dendritic cells
and Macrophages
Spread to local lymph
nodes and spleen
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Arasli, M., Curr Trop Med Rep. 2016, 3, 14-19.
9. Clinical Features:
• The CCHFV infection can be characterised by four characteristic stages viz.,
incubation, prehemorrhagic, hemorrhagic, and convalescence
Melena Epistaxis
Ecchymosis Petechiae
Ergönül, Ö.et al., Emerg. Infect. Dis. 2018, 24, 1642.
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10. Treatment:
• CCHF is a severe disease in humans, with a high mortality rate, but unfortunately there
is no specific treatment available till date
• General supportive therapy is the mainstay of patient management in CCHF. Intensive
monitoring to guide volume and blood component replacement is required
• The antiviral drug ribavirin has been used in treatment of established CCHF infection
with apparent benefit, but effectiveness is yet to be proven
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http://www.searo.who.int/entity/emerging_diseases/links/CCHF_Fact_Sheet_SEARO.pdf (21 nov 10:30am).
11. Prevention and control:
• As it is a tick borne virus acaricides (chemicals intended to kill ticks) can be an option
• Persons living in endemic areas should use personal protective measures
• Patients with suspected or confirmed CCHF should be isolated and cared for using
barrier nursing techniques. Proper measures are to be taken to prevent nosocomial
transmission
• Healthcare workers are at risk of acquiring infection and therefore they should take
proper precautions
• Community education initiatives should be instituted in the event of an observed
outbreak
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http://www.searo.who.int/entity/emerging_diseases/links/CCHF_Fact_Sheet_SEARO.pdf (21 nov 10:30am).
12. Literature review:
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• Javadmanesh Ali et al., have conducted in silico evaluation of the antiviral effects of the
lactoferrin against the envelopment protein (Gn and Gc) of the CCHFV
• Sitansu Kumar Verma et al., have conducting docking studies to explore the binding
sites for the antiviral compounds in RdRp of CCHFV
• Fatih Kocabas et al., used computational approaches for identification of inhibition site
in OTU Domain of CCHFV
14. • Materials and methods:
Preparation of the target structure for docking
Preparation of the docked entity
Predicting CCHFV N binding site
High – throughput docking studies
Classical Molecular dynamic simulation
Ensemble – based docking simulations
Virtual screening procedure
• Results:
CCHFV N druggable pocket
Finding putative inhibitors
Molecular dynamic studies
Contd…
Contd…
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15. Contd…
Contd…
Preparation of the target structure for docking:
•The X Ray crystallographic structure of CCHFV nucleoprotein was deposited in the PDB
along with sulfate ion as a ligand with ID 4AQG with a resolution of 2.8 Å
•They have downloaded the structure and upon studying they have found that the amino
acid sequence was missing of 12 amino acid sequences which were later added using
SWISS - MODEL
•The sequences from Leu181 to Ser194 were added
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17. Contd…
Contd…
Predicting CCHFV N binding site:
•In this study for determining the binding pocket, they have used DoGsiteScorer server
•Then they have used Poisson Boltzmann solver (APBS) method of PyMol software to
determine the positive charges
High – throughput docking studies:
•After the binding pockets have been recognized they have predicted the binding poses and
affinities of the compounds over the predicted binding site of CCHFV Nucleoprotein
•For this determination AutoDock Vina 1.1.2 with 40 – 34 – 40 search space was used
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18. Classical Molecular dynamic simulation:
•Initially, they have used PRODRG server to generate the topology files of the ligand
•The corrections regarding their protonation states was made using the PROPKA server and
finally GROMAC was used
•The molecular dynamics simulation was done for 10 ns
Ensemble – based docking simulations:
•In this study, the ensemble was made using molecular dynamic simulation
•The simulation was performed for 10 nanoseconds (ns) and for every 2.5 ns a snapshot was
taken
Contd…
Contd…
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20. Contd…
Contd…
Results:
CCHFV N druggable pocket:
•Using DoGsiteScorer server they have recognised three pockets which are allegedly be the
potential binding pocket. The three pockets were as follows:
• Pocket1 (between head and tail domains)
• Pocket 2 (in the head domain)
• Pocket 3 (in the head domain)
•It was found that pocket 1 and pocket 3 consists of both positive and negative charges, and
the pocket 2 contains more positive charge
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21. Contd…
Contd…Sharifi. A et al., Comput. Biol. Chem. 2017, 70, 1-6.
Three predicted pockets over CCHFV N protein are coloured by yellow, cyan and magenta
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22. Contd…
Contd…
Finding putative inhibitors:
•1584 FDA approved drugs were docked with the cut-off value of -8 kcal/mol and 25 hits
were retained
•After the screening procedure only Doxycycline and Minocycline have been selected
•The docking conformation of doxycycline shows two hydrogen bonds with Leu387 and
one with Lys411 besides hydrophobic interactions with Ala302, Ile373, and Ile448
•Minocycline predicted pose comprises only one hydrogen bond with Ser386 in addition to
hydrophobic contact with Ala302, Thr381, and Ile448 residues
•It was hypothesized that doxycycline inhibits the protein more desirable than minocycline,
as it is in accordance with their obtained binding energies
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23. Contd…
Contd…
A. Binding orientation of doxycycline B. Binding orientation of minocycline C. Alignment of both drugs
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Sharifi. A et al., Comput. Biol. Chem. 2017, 70, 1-6.
24. Contd…
Molecular dynamic studies:
•The Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD) of the protein backbone reveals that the
suggested ligand – protein complex reach stability at same time
(A) MD graphs of doxycycline and minocycline
(B) The RMSD plot of protein ligand complex
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Sharifi. A et al., Comput. Biol. Chem. 2017, 70, 1-6.
25. Conclusion:
• CCHFV is one of the most dangerous classes of the virus and it was suggested CCHFV
Nucleoprotein could be a potential pharmaceutical target for inhibiting CCHFV
• FDA approved drugs were docked 25 dugs were filtered, virtual screening of these 25
drugs were conducted and two drugs, namely Doxycycline and Minocycline were
selected
• Molecular dynamic simulation of CCHFV N protein was done for 10ns with a snapshot
taken for every 2.5ns i.e., 4 snapshots or 4 conformations of the protein were identified
and the two drugs Doxycycline and Minocycline were docked over those 4 conformers
• It was found that both bind to all conformers with equal affinity and RMSD revealed that
the protein-ligand complex is more stable than that of protein without ligand
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