Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Prediction of novel natural inhibitors of avian coccidia (Eimeria tenella) through molecular docking

Manei M Aljedaie¹ , Pravej Alam¹, Esam S Al-Malki²

¹Department of Biology, College of Sciences and Humanities, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, PO box 173, Al-Kharj, 11942; ²Department of Biology, College of Sciences in Zulfi, Majmaah University, Majmaah 11952, Saudi Arabia.

For correspondence:- Manei Aljedaie Email: aljedaie@psau.edu.sa

Accepted: 20 June 2021 Published: 29 July 2021

Citation: Aljedaie MM, Alam P, Al-Malki ES. Prediction of novel natural inhibitors of avian coccidia (Eimeria tenella) through molecular docking. Trop J Pharm Res 2021; 20(7):1441-1445 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v20i7.17

© 2021 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To identify some natural molecules (inhibitors) against avian coccidia (Eimeria tenella) through molecular docking in order to find the candidate drugs for poultry industry.

Methods: The natural compounds, 6’-de-O-acetylcupacinoside, apigenin, artemisinin, cupacinoside, quercetin and rutin, were screened on the basis of previous research data. These biomolecules were selected as potent inhibitors based on extant literature on calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) in Eimeria tenella.

Results: All the compounds showed good interactions with 6’-de-O-acetylcupacinoside. Based on docking studies, quercetin produced the best interaction, with a binding energy of -7.04 kcal/mol, when compared to the other compounds.

Conclusions: Based on these in silico results, the screened compounds have great potential for use against E. tenella. In particular, the results suggest that quercetin may be beneficial in the control of avian coccidia through its strong inhibitory potential on CDPKs of E. tenella.

Keywords: Apicomplexan, Natural compounds, Calcium-dependent protein kinase (CDPK), Eimeria, Docking studies, 6’-Dse-O-acetylcupacinoside, Apigenin, Artemisinin