Title

Authors

Affiliation

¹Bioinformatics Department, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science,University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; ²Department of Life Sciences, School of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, International Medical University, 126 Jalan Jalil Perkasa 19, Bukit Jalil, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Email

waikeat_yam@imu.edu.my; *Corresponding author

Article Type

Hypothesis

Date

Selected publications from Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet) 10th International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB 2011), Malaysia, November 30 to December 02, 2011

Finding the ultimate HIV cure remain a challenging tasks for decades. Various active compounds have been tested against various components of the virus in the effort to halt the virus development in infected host. The idea of finding cure from known pharmacologically active natural occurring compounds is intriguing and practical. Ganoderma lucidum (Ling-Zhi or Reishi) is one of the most productive and pharmacologically active compounds found in Asian countries. It has been used traditionally for many years throughout different cultures. More than a decade ago, el-Mekkawy and co-workers (1998) have tested several active compounds found in this plant. They have successfully identified several active compounds with reasonable inhibitory activity against HIV protease however; no further studies were done on these compounds. This study aimed to elucidate interactions for one of the active compounds of Ganoderma lucidum namely ganoderic acid with HIV-1 protease using molecular docking simulation. This study revealed four hydrogen bonds formed between model34 of ganoderic acid B and 1HVR. Hydrogen bonds in 1HVR-Model34 complex were formed through ILE50, ILE50’, ASP29 and ASP30 residues. Interestingly similar interactions were also observed in the native ligand in 1HVR. Furthermore, interactions involving ILE50 and ILE50’ residues have been previously identified to play central roles in HIV-1 protease-ligand interactions.These observed interactions not only suggested HIV-1 protease in general is a suitable target for ganoderic acid B, they also indicated a huge potential for HIV drug discovery based on this compound.

Citation

Akbar & Yam. Bioinformation 7(8): 413-417 (2011)
 

Edited by

TW Tan

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.