Title:In silico Pharmacodynamics, Antineoplastic Activity and Molecular Docking of two Phytochemicals Isolated from Thymelaea microphylla
Volume: 21
Issue: 13
Author(s): Hasna Ghanem, Oussama Khaoua, Ammar Ouahab, Noura Benbellat and Hamada Haba*
Affiliation:
- Laboratory of Chemistry and Environmental Chemistry (L.C.C.E), Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences of
Matter, University of Batna 1, Batna, Algeria
Keywords:
Thymelaea microphylla, Thymelaeaceae, microphynolides A and B, DFT, in silico study, antineoplastic activity, molecular docking.
Abstract:
Background: The lead compounds isolated from medicinal plants constitute a matrix for
research and discovery of new drugs using in silico study and molecular docking.
Objective: This work explores the in silico study and the molecular docking of two rare phytochemicals,
namely Microphynolide A (1) and Microphynolide B (2), isolated from the Saharan medicinal plant
Thymelaea microphylla (Thymelaeaceae family).
Methods: In the current work, several integrated web-based in silico pharmacokinetic tools were used to
estimate the druggability of two isolated phytochemicals. In addition, molecular docking was conducted
using AutoDockVina 4.2 to study the binding interactions with the targets predicted employing the
PharmMapper server. The toxicological study was evaluated using ProTox-II online server. DFT methods
were utilized to evaluate some physicochemical properties of structures, vibrational wavenumbers, and
molecular electrostatic potentials.
Results: Molecules (1) and (2) showed good ADMET profiles and antineoplastic activity. Also, they
exhibited non-toxicity and belong to the Toxicity class VI (LD50 >8000 mg/kg) with immunotoxic
activity. A good correlation was observed between the experimental and theoretical IR spectra, with no
negative values in the theoretical spectra indicating the high stability of these compounds. Docking
simulation studies against protein receptors Sulfotransferase 1A1 (PDB ID: 1LS6) and Angiogenin (PDB
ID: 1B1I) displayed good binding affinity values of -5.8 and -6.8 kcal/mol, respectively, with number of
H-bonding interactions. Furthermore, the control molecules p-Nitrophenol (pNP), Dopamine, Axitinib
and Bevacizumab displayed values of binding energies of -6.7, -6.7, -6.9 and -6.3 Kcal/mol, respectively.
Conclusion: This study provides evidence supporting that the two molecules could be effective drugs to
inhibit cancer cells and did not show any acute toxicity or mutagenic effects.