Anti-HIV Potential of Beesioside I Derivatives as Maturation Inhibitors: Synthesis, 3D-QSAR, Molecular Docking and Molecular Dynamics Simulations

HIV-1 maturation is the final step in the retroviral lifecycle that is regulated by the proteolytic cleavage of the Gag precursor protein. As a first-in-class HIV-1 maturation inhibitor (MI), bevirimat blocks virion maturation by disrupting capsid-spacer peptide 1 (CA-SP1) cleavage, which acts as the target of MIs. Previous alterations of beesioside I (1) produced (20S,24S)-15 beta,16 beta-diacetoxy-18,24; 20,24-diepoxy-9,19-cyclolanostane-3 beta,25-diol 3-O-3',3'-dimethylsuccinate (3, DSC), showing similar anti-HIV potency compared to bevirimat. To ascertain the binding modes of this derivative, further modification of compound 1 was conducted. Three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR) analysis combined with docking simulations and molecular dynamics (MD) were conducted. Five new derivatives were synthesized, among which compound 3b showed significant activity against HIV-1(NL4-3) with an EC50 value of 0.28 mu M. The developed 3D-QSAR model resulted in great predictive ability with training set (r(2) = 0.99, q(2) = 0.55). Molecular docking studies were complementary to the 3D-QSAR analysis, showing that DSC was differently bound to CA-SP1 with higher affinity than that of bevirimat. MD studies revealed that the complex of the ligand and the protein was stable, with root mean square deviation (RMSD) values <2.5 angstrom. The above results provided valuable insights into the potential of DSC as a prototype to develop new antiviral agents.