An In-Silico Investigation of Phytochemicals as Antiviral Agents Against Dengue Fever

Powers, Chelsea N.; Setzer, William N.

Curcuma longa extracts have shown activity against hepatitis B virus replication [57] and dengue-2 virus protease [58] . In addition, curcumin, one of the major components of C. longa, has shown inhibition of HIV-1 and HIV-2 proteases [59] and in-vitro infectivity of dengue virus type 2 [60] . García Ariza and co-workers have suggested that dengue virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase inhibition by curcumin, based on molecular docking studies, may be responsible for the anti-dengue activity of curcumin [61] . In this present docking study, several curcuminoids (1,7-bis(4hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-1,4,6-heptatrien-3-one, curcumin I, curcumin II, curcumin III, and dihydrocurcumin) showed notably strong docking energies to the ATP site of dengue virus helicase ( Table 3) . These ligands also showed docking energies somewhat stronger than those of the cocrystallized ligands for DENV RdRp (e.g., curcumin I, E dock = -119.3 kJ/mol). Curcumin I also showed excellent docking properties to the DENV envelope protein hydrophobic pore (see below, Table 5 ).