MOLECULAR DOCKING STUDY OF PHYLLANTHUSAMARUS METABOLITES: A POTENTIAL ALTERNATIVE THERAPY FOR HEPATITIS B

Hepatitis B (HB) is a major viral infection that endangers millions of people worldwide and traditional interventions such as Tenofovir have proven to be restrictive. Phytomedicine The traditional plant Phytanthusamarus is a well known antiviral (especially anti-HBV). It is a molecular docking study that assesses Phyllanthin, a bioactive product obtained in Phyllanthus Marus and tenofovir in the determination of their binding affinities to the core protein of Hepatitis B virus (PDB ID: 5WRE). The findings revealed that Phyllanthin has a MolDock score of -101.92, which is much lower than -86.87 that of Tenofovir, which means that it has a higher binding affinity. The hydrogen bond analysis demonstrated that the weaker bonds of Phyllanthin were compensated with the greater specificity and stability and it is a good candidate to be experimentally validated. These results indicate that Phyllanthin may be a successful alternative/ adjunct to traditional antiviral management of Hepatitis B.