Simulação computacional de mutações em Plasmodium falciparum que podem conferir resistência e busca de novos fármacos capazes de combater o mutante

Abstract

Malaria is an infectious disease that affects mostly poor populations living in tropical areas. It is transmitted by bite of insects of genus Anopheles. Infectious agent is a protozoan of the genus Plasmodium, four species infect humans, Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium ovale, the first is the most lethal. There is no vaccine for the disease and the treatment is chemotherapy, drugs like quinine, chloroquine, pyrimethamine, sulfadoxine, atovaquone and artemisinin are employed. However, prolonged use of these drugs, monotherapy and early discontinuation of treatment has favored the emergence and establishment of resistant strains, which survive despite the administration of the drug. Many of resistance mechanisms are due to mutations that may alter one or more amino acid residues present in the protein chain, such that the binding affinity between the drug and the protein is compromised and not inhibition occurs. It then becomes necessary to search for new molecules that can act as drugs capable of fighting mutant strains. The Plasmodium falciparum’s dihydrofolate reductase enzyme belongs to the path of folic acid and is inhibited by drugs pyrimethamine and cycloguanil. A16V/S108T mutation becomes the parasite resistant to cycloguanil and N51I/C59R/S108N/I164L mutation to pyrimethamine. Through homology modeling, were generated new three-dimensional structures of this enzyme, with site-directed mutations in other amino acid residues present in the active site. Then docking study using these model structures was conducted, seeking to suggest other mutants that also have low affinity for inhibitors, which may then lead to possible strains resistant. We selected some of the mutant enzymes and conducted a virtual screening with new molecules obtained from the database NCI Diversity Set II to search prototypes for new drugs. The enzyme dihydrofolate reductase exists as a bifunctional molecule bound to the enzyme thymidylate synthase through a junction region of 89 amino acids, we also perform virtual screening targeting molecules that interact with the junction region, according to some authors, can be targeted for action of noncompetitive drugs.