Quercetin attenuates viral infections by interacting with target proteins and linked genes in chemicobiological models

Md Atiar Rahman; Fauzia Mahanaz Shorobi; Md Nazim Uddin; Srabonti Saha; Md Amjad Hossain

doi:10.1007/s40203-022-00132-2

Quercetin attenuates viral infections by interacting with target proteins and linked genes in chemicobiological models

In Silico Pharmacol. 2022 Sep 16;10(1):17. doi: 10.1007/s40203-022-00132-2. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Md Atiar Rahman¹, Fauzia Mahanaz Shorobi², Md Nazim Uddin³, Srabonti Saha¹, Md Amjad Hossain⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Chittagong, Chittagong, 4331 Bangladesh.
² Department of Botany, University of Chittagong, Chittagong, 4331 Bangladesh.
³ Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Qudrat-E-Khuda Road, Dhaka, 1205 Bangladesh.
⁴ Department of Pharmacy, International Islamic University Chittagong, Kumira, 4320 Bangladesh.

Abstract

Medicinally active compounds in the flavonoid class of phytochemicals are being studied for antiviral action against various DNA and RNA viruses. Quercetin is a flavonoid present in a wide range of foods, including fruits and vegetables. It is said to be efficient against a wide range of viruses. This research investigated the usefulness of Quercetin against Hepatitis C virus, Dengue type 2 virus, Ebola virus, and Influenza A using computational models. A molecular docking study using the online tool PockDrug was accomplished to identify the best binding sites between Quercetin and PubChem-based receptors. Network-pharmacological assay to opt to verify function-specific gene-compound interactions using STITCH, STRING, GSEA, Cytoscape plugin cytoHubba. Quercetin explored tremendous binding affinity against NS5A protein for HCV with a docking score of - 6.268 kcal/mol, NS5 for DENV-2 with a docking score of - 5.393 kcal/mol, VP35 protein for EBOV with a docking score of - 4.524 kcal/mol, and NP protein for IAV with a docking score of - 6.954 kcal/mol. In the network-pharmacology study, out of 39 hub genes, 38 genes have been found to interact with Quercetin and the top interconnected nodes in the protein-protein network were (based on the degree of interaction with other nodes) AKT1, EGFR, SRC, MMP9, MMP2, KDR, IGF1R, PTK2, ABCG2, and MET. Negative binding energies were noticed in Quercetin-receptor interaction. Results demonstrate that Quercetin could be a potential antiviral agent against these viral diseases with further study in in-vivo models.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40203-022-00132-2.

Keywords: Antiviral action; Dengue; Flavonoid; Hepatitis C virus; Influenza; Quercetin; SARSCOV-2.

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Abstract

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