Initial viral infection stage: stereo-chemical study of (glico)protein E envelope of the dengue virus

• Grant number: 09/08700-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Data de Início da vigência: September 01, 2009
• Data de Término da vigência: February 28, 2013
• Área de conhecimento: Biological Sciences - Biophysics - Molecular Biophysics
• Principal Investigator: Antonio Caliri
• Grantee: Ricardo Oliveira dos Santos Soares
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto (FCFRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The dengue, covering all tropical and subtropical region of the globe and with over 50 million cases reported annually, is considered an emerging problem of growing proportions, especially in Brazil: as a tropical problem, the dengue is practically neglected by the major manufacturers of drugs; the "market failure" syndrome. Thus, actions to create, adapt, and meet conditions to promote advances in the understanding of the virus infection, at the molecular level, can indeed be of great value to meet the challenges imposed by this stage of dengue, as well to be prepared for any future mutants of this and other viral diseases. In this project, focusing on the (glyco)protein E of the envelope of the virus, it is proposed to address the problem of viral infection in various complementary aspects: the consistency of existing hypotheses regarding the mechanisms of the preliminary binding of virus to the cell, having in mind the four different types of viruses, will be examined through numerical simulations of the system, which is consisted of the protein E in several distinct physiological conditions. For this purpose, by means of molecular dynamics analysis, the process of conformational rearrangement of the domain III of protein "E" will be qualified and quantized, for the four types of dengue viruses, as induced by changes in intensive parameters. This conformational rearrangement is known as the precursor of all other events involved in the mechanisms of the virus-cell binding. And in addition, will be studied the events that promote the fusion of viral membrane with the host cell membrane, as described throughout the energy and dynamics of conformational domains II and III of the protein, under several controlled physiological conditions. This study is based on descriptions of the configuracional dynamics of different domains of protein E, obtained by deterministic simulations, like molecular dynamics, and in calculations of the free energy of binding, using the LIE method, Thermodynamic Integration and Free Energy Perturbation. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SOARES, R. O. S.; CALIRI, A.. Stereochemical features of the envelope protein Domain III of dengue virus reveals putative antigenic site in the five-fold symmetry axis. BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA-PROTEINS AND PROTEOMICS, v. 1834, n. 1, p. 221-230, JAN 2013. (09/08700-6, 08/11706-3)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

SOARES, Ricardo Oliveira dos Santos. Preliminary processes of viral infection: stereochemical study of the E protein of Dengue. 2013. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC) Ribeirão Preto.