Chemoselective synthesis of isolated and fused fluorenones and their photophysical and antiviral properties.

Highly functionalized fluorenones were synthesized by an intramolecular cyclization of 2''-halo-[1,1':3',1''-terphenyl]-4'-carbonitriles in the presence of n-butyllithium or lithium aluminium hydride. The precursor was synthesized by ring transformation of 2-oxo-6-aryl/heteroaryl-4-(sec.amino)-2H-pyran-3-carbonitriles or 2-oxobenzo[h]chromenes with o-bromo/chloro/fluoro-acetophenone under basic conditions in moderate yield. We performed the control experiment to understand the proposed mechanism and found that the presence of a secondary amine in the starting material directs the reactivity. The photophysical properties of 3-methoxy-7-(piperidin-1-yl)-5H-indeno[2,1-b]phenanthren-8(6H)-one was explored and solvent dependent emission was observed. These compounds were also tested against HIV-1 and low to moderate activity was observed.

An in silico approach for identification of novel inhibitors as a potential therapeutics targeting HIV-1 viral infectivity factor.

Currently available antiviral drugs target the pol-encoded retroviral enzymes or integrases, in addition, inhibitors that target HIV-1 envelope-receptor interactions have also been recently approved. Recent understanding of the interactions between HIV-1 and host restriction factors has provided fresh avenues for development of novel antiviral drugs. For example, viral infectivity factor (Vif) now surfaced as an important therapeutic target in treatment of HIV infection. Vif suppresses A3G antiviral activity by targeting these proteins for polyubiquitination and proteasomal degradation. In the present study we analyzed the inhibitory potential of VEC5 and RN18 to inhibit the Vif-A3G interaction through protein- protein docking studies. Perusal of the study showed that, VEC5 and RN18 though inhibits the interaction however showed sub optimal potential. To overcome this set back, we identified 35 structural analogues of VEC5 and 18 analogues of RN18 through virtual screening approach. Analogue with PubCID 71624757 and 55358204 (AKOS006479723) -structurally akin to VEC5 and RN18 respectively showed much appreciable interaction than their respective parent compound. Evident from Vif-A3G; protein - protein docking studies, analogue PubCID 71624757 demonstrated 1.08 folds better inhibitory potential than its parent compound VEC5 while analogue PubCID 55358204 was 1.15 folds better than RN18. Further these analogues passed drug likeness filters and predicted to be non- toxic. We expect these analogues can be put to pharmacodynamic studies that can pave way the breakthrough in HIV therapeutics.

Molecular docking analysis of RN18 and VEC5 in A3G-Vif inhibition.

The HIV-1 protein Vif is essential for in vivo viral replication that targets the human DNA-editing enzyme, APOBEC3G (A3G), which inhibits replication of retroviruses. The Vif-A3G interactions are believed to be important targets for antiviral drug development. Since the interactions of A3G and Vif evade the ubiquitination pathways in human host, the viral replication precedes which otherwise spreads infection. In this study, two potent Vif inhibitors RN 18 and VEC5 have been evaluated for their inhibitory potential employing ligand receptor and protein-protein interactions studies. VEC 5 showed better interaction with Vif than RN18. Predicted data show that VEC5 bound Vif and RN18 bound Vif showed diminished interaction to A3G compared to inhibitor unbound Vif. However, this should be further validated using in vitro studies.