Structure‐guided Discovery of a Novel Non‐peptide Inhibitor of Dengue Virus NS2B–NS3 Protease

Dengue fever is a fast emerging epidemic-prone viral disease caused by dengue virus serotypes 1-4. NS2B-NS3 protease of dengue virus is a validated target to develop antiviral agents. A major limitation in developing dengue virus protease inhibitors has been the lack of or poor cellular activity. In this work, we extracted and refined a pharmacophore model based on X-ray crystal structure and predicted binding patterns, followed by a three-dimensional flexible database filtration. These output molecules were screened according to a docking-based protocol, leading to the discovery of a compound with novel scaffold and good cell-based bioactivity that has potential to be further optimized. The discovery of this novel scaffold by combination of in silico methods suggests that structure-guided drug discovery can lead to the development of potent dengue virus protease inhibitors.