Toll-like receptor 8 (TLR8), as an endosomal transmembrane receptor, plays a crucial role in the innate immune response to
neoplasia and viruses. Previous studies have shown that TLR8 agonists e.g.
Motolimod can be used to treat patients with last-stage
cancer. In this study, in order to find new suitable
ligands for TLR8, 16 PBD codes related to TLR8 complexes were collected to design the pharmacophore models using the Pharmit server. Then the PubChem, and
ZINC databases were screened by them. Subsequently, the ADME-Tox features of the compounds were detected using FAF-Drugs4 and the selected compounds were docked to TLR8 (PDB: 3w3j). Molecular dynamics simulation was used to compare compounds with the best docking scores, with
Motolimod in complex with TLR8. Finally, two compounds were identified, PubChem: 124126919 (A) and PubChem: 18559540 (B), each with advantages over
Motolimod. As the RMSD results showed that compound A has very good flexibility, in terms of energy calculated using the MM-GBSA method, complex B and TLR8 showed the lowest energy level compared to the rest of the complexes. These observations suggest that these two compounds could be used as TLR8 agonists with the desired pharmacological features in future experimental studies.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.