Comprehensive Molecular Interaction Studies to Construe the Repellent/Kill Activity of Geraniol During Binding Event Against Aedes aegypti Proteins

Aedes aegypti is an etiological agent for dengue, chikungunya, zika, and yellow fever viruses. With the advent of the use of natural alternatives as repellents, their precise mode of action during the event of binding is still unclear. Geraniol is one such bioactive natural that has been previously shown to have some insecticide properties. Thus, the present study aimed to understand the mechanism of the binding event of geraniol with the whole proteome of A. aegypti. Twenty protein target categories were shortlisted for the mosquito, wherein the proteins were downloaded with respect to the reference proteome. Conserved domain analysis was performed for the same using the CDD search tool to find the proteins that have common domains. 309 proteins were modeled using RaptorX standalone tool, and validated using Ramachandran plots from SAVES v6.0 from ProCheck. These modeled and validated proteins were then docked against geraniol, using POAP software, for understanding the binding energies. The top 3 best-docked complexes were then analyzed for their stabilities and event of binding via 100 ns simulation studies using DESMOND’s Maestro environment. The docking results showed that the geraniol-voltage-gated sodium channel had the best energy of − 7.1 kcal/mol, followed by geraniol-glutathione-S-transferase (− 6.8 kcal/mol) and geraniol-alpha esterase (− 6.8 kcal/mol). The simulations for these 3 complexes revealed that several residues of the proteins interacted well with geraniol at a molecular level, and all three docked complexes were found to be stable when simulated (RMSD: 16–18 Å, 3.6–4.8 Å, 4.8–5.6 Å, respectively). Thus, the present study provides insights into the mechanism of the binding event of geraniol with the major A. aegypti targets, thereby, assisting the use of geraniol as a natural repellent.