TY - JOUR
T1 - Anti-HCV protease of diketopiperazines produced by the Red Sea sponge-associated fungus Aspergillus versicolor
AU - Ahmed, Eman
AU - Rateb, Mostafa
AU - El-Kassem, L.T. Abou
AU - Hawas, Usama
PY - 2017/1/1
Y1 - 2017/1/1
N2 - Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a global problem due to the difficulties in developing a protective vaccine. In this work, we demonstrated that the ethyl acetate extract of the endophytic fungus Aspergillus versicolor exhibited significant activity against HCV NS3/4A protease with IC50 value of 30 μg/mL. The fungus was isolated from the Red Sea black sponge Spongia officinalis and identified by its morphology and 18S rDNA. Large-scale fermentation of the fungus followed by chromatographic purification with silica gel, Sephadex LH-20 and semipreparative HPLC of the active extract led to isolation of some known metabolites related to cyclodipeptides and the so-called diketopiperazines (DKPs). The DKP, cyclo(L-Tyr-L-Pro), displayed strong effect as HCV protease inhibitor with IC50 value of 8.2 μg/mL. A computational docking study of cyclo(L-Tyr-L-Pro) against HCV protease was used to formulate a hypothetical mechanism for the inhibitory activity of the active compound on the tested enzyme.
AB - Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a global problem due to the difficulties in developing a protective vaccine. In this work, we demonstrated that the ethyl acetate extract of the endophytic fungus Aspergillus versicolor exhibited significant activity against HCV NS3/4A protease with IC50 value of 30 μg/mL. The fungus was isolated from the Red Sea black sponge Spongia officinalis and identified by its morphology and 18S rDNA. Large-scale fermentation of the fungus followed by chromatographic purification with silica gel, Sephadex LH-20 and semipreparative HPLC of the active extract led to isolation of some known metabolites related to cyclodipeptides and the so-called diketopiperazines (DKPs). The DKP, cyclo(L-Tyr-L-Pro), displayed strong effect as HCV protease inhibitor with IC50 value of 8.2 μg/mL. A computational docking study of cyclo(L-Tyr-L-Pro) against HCV protease was used to formulate a hypothetical mechanism for the inhibitory activity of the active compound on the tested enzyme.
U2 - 10.1134/S0003683817010021
DO - 10.1134/S0003683817010021
M3 - Article
SN - 0003-6838
VL - 53
SP - 101
EP - 106
JO - Applied Biochemistry and Microbiology
JF - Applied Biochemistry and Microbiology
IS - 1
ER -
