UNVEILING MOLECULAR INTERACTIONS: COUMARIN DERIVATIVES AND DENGUE VIRUS PROTEIN TARGETS

Abstract

Dengue virus (DENV) remains a significant global health threat, with its transmission spanning across a minimum of 128 countries.This viral disease puts nearly 4 billion people at risk worldwide, so the exploration of innovative therapeutic strategies is necessary [1][2][3][4][5].Dengue fever is a Flaviviral infection transmitted by mosquitoes, predominantly by Aedes aegypti, and to a lesser extent by Aedes albopictus and other Aedes species [4,6].The dengue virus is an enveloped spherical virus, possessing a single stranded RNA genome.It also has three structural proteins, including, the capsid (C), membrane (M) and envelope (E), and seven nonstructural proteins, including NS1, NS2A, NS2B, NS3, NS4A, NS4B and NS5.These nonestructural proteins play various roles in viral replication [7-9] (Figure 1).The dengue virus is categorized into five distinct serotypes-DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, DENV-4, and DENV-5 based on antigenic variability.All serogroups cause severe and critical health issues [8,10,11].The incubation period for dengue fever spans 4-7 days.The spectrum of the disease encompasses asymptomatic infection and mild febrile illness (referred to as dengue fever) to more severe manifestations, including dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS) [12].The most critical syndrome may present as dengue shock syndrome (DSS), characterized by coagulation abnormalities, plasma leakage, and heightened vascular fragility.The loss of fluids due to increased capillary permeability results in hypovolemic shock and multi-organ failure [13].Annually, around 20,000 deaths occur due to dengue virus infection, particularly in cases associated with secondary dengue and DHF/DSS.