Abstract
La protein is significantly expressed in various malignant tumors, including ovarian cancer (OC), which is related to the poor response to platinum-based chemotherapy. Thus, inhibiting La protein could control the expression of the potential downstream genes involved in promoting proliferation and chemotherapy resistance to OC, which could serve as a therapeutic intervention. Through a molecular docking approach, 12 compounds from Morchella esculenta were screened against the crystal structure of La protein and four hit compounds were identified, including beta-carotene, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, gamma-tocopherol, and alpha-tocopherol, with a binding affinity of − 10.7, − 8.1, − 7.9, and − 7.6 kcal/mol, respectively, higher than pyridine-2-carboxylate (control), with a binding affinity of − 5.2 kcal/mol. To explore the interaction of the hit compounds with the target receptor, they were selected for a molecular dynamic simulation and post-simulation analysis for 100 ns. The result showed promising reliability of the ligands due to a stable interaction with the La protein crystal structure. Furthermore, the drug-likeness and physicochemical chemical properties of the compounds were investigated using ADMET study and density functional theory analysis, respectively, and the result shows that the hit compounds could serve as a promising starting for the development of novel LA protein inhibitors for OC therapeutics. Finally, this study compared HOMO and LUMO values from global hybrids with long-range corrected DFAs, and the result from the two followed the same qualitative pattern while calculating HOMO values; however, MO62X/cc-pVTZ could better predict LUMO values when considering a global hybrid.
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Acknowledgements
This work used Bridges-2 at the Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center through allocation CHE220065 from the Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support (ACCESS) program, which is supported by National Science Foundation Grants #2138259, #2138286, #2138307, #2137603, and #2138296.
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GD designed the study. GD performed high-throughput virtual screening, chemical library curation, molecular docking, pharmacokinetic analysis, molecular dynamics simulation, and post-simulation analysis. GD, MNW, and JJD performed density functional theory calculations. GD drafted the manuscript. JJD and MS critically revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Dairo, G., Ward, M.N., Soendergaard, M. et al. Bioactive compounds from Morchella esculenta as potential inhibitors of RNA-binding protein La in ovarian cancer: a molecular modeling and quantum mechanics approach. In Silico Pharmacol. 12, 32 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40203-024-00202-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40203-024-00202-7