Background:Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are parasitic and bacterial diseases
that affect approximately 149 countries, mainly the poor population without basic sanitation.
Among these, Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT), known as sleeping sickness, shows
alarming data, with treatment based on suramin and pentamidine in the initial phase and melarsoprol
and eflornithine in the chronic phase. Thus, to discover new drugs, several studies
point to rhodesain as a promising drug target due to the function of protein degradation and intracellular
transport of proteins between the insect and host cells and is present in all cycle phases
of the parasite.Methods:Here, based on the previous studies by Nascimento et al. (2021) [5], that show the
main rhodesain inhibitors development in the last decade, molecular docking and dynamics
were applied in these inhibitors datasets to reveal crucial information that can be into drug
design.Results:Also, our findings using MD simulations and MM-PBSA calculations confirmed Gly19,
Gly23, Gly65, Asp161, and Trp184, showing high binding energy (ΔGbind between -72.782 to
-124.477 kJ.mol-1). In addition, Van der Waals interactions have a better contribution (-140,930
to -96,988 kJ.mol-1) than electrostatic forces (-43,270 to -6,854 kJ.mol-1), indicating Van der
Waals interactions are the leading forces in forming and maintaining ligand-rhodesain complexes.
Thus, conventional and covalent docking was employed and highlighted the presence of Michael
acceptors in the ligands in a peptidomimetics scaffold, and interaction with Gly19, Gly23,
Gly65, Asp161, and Trp184 is essential to the inhibiting activity. Furthermore, the Dynamic
Cross-Correlation Maps (DCCM) show more correlated movements for all complexes than the
free rhodesain and strong interactions in the regions of the aforementioned residues. Principal
Component Analysis (PCA) demonstrates complex stability corroborating with RMSF and
RMSD.Conclusion:This study can provide valuable insights that can guide researchers worldwide to
discover a new promising drug against HAT.