Virtual screening of novel compounds as potential ER-alpha inhibitors

Lomitapide repurposing for treatment of malignancies: A promising direction

The development of novel drugs from basic science to clinical practice requires several years, much effort, and cost. Drug repurposing can promote the utilization of clinical drugs in cancer therapy. Recent studies have shown the potential effects of lomitapide on treating malignancies, which is currently used for the treatment of familial hypercholesterolemia. We systematically review possible functions and mechanisms of lomitapide as an anti-tumor compound, regarding the aspects of apoptosis, autophagy, and metabolism of tumor cells, to support repurposing lomitapide for the clinical treatment of tumors.

Synthesis, and In-silico Studies of Indole-chalcone Derivatives Targeting Estrogen Receptor Alpha (ER-α) for Breast Cancer

BACKGROUND

Breast cancer is the prominent reason of death in women worldwide, and the cases are increasing day by day. There are many FDA-approved drugs for treating breast cancer. Due to drug resistance, and problems in selectivity, there is a need to develop more effective agents with few side effects. Indole derivatives have demonstrated significant pharmacological potential as anti-breast cancer agents. Further, chalcone derivatives incorporating heterocyclic scaffolds play a significant role in medicine. Indole-chalcone-based compounds offer the potential for improved biological activity and enhanced drug-like properties. It prompted us to explore the synthesis of Indole-Chalcone derivatives targeting estrogen receptor alpha (ER-α) to discover potent anti-breast cancer agents.

OBJECTIVES

To synthesize indole-chalcone derivatives and study their binding interactions for ER-α protein by molecular docking for breast cancer treatment.

METHODS

In this study, indole-chalcone derivatives have been synthesized using conventional heating. With the help of Schrodinger software, molecular interaction as well as ADME (Adsorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion) studies of the compounds were conducted.

RESULTS

Among all the synthesized compounds, four compounds (1, 2, 3, and 4) showed better docking scores (-10.24 kcal/mol, -10.15 kcal/mol, -9.40 kcal/mol, -9.29 kcal/mol, respectively) than the standard tamoxifen (-8.43 kcal/mol).

CONCLUSION

From In-silico studies, we can conclude that four compounds from the synthesized series fit into the active site of ER-α. ADME properties of synthesized derivatives were found in the acceptable range. In the future, these compounds can be further explored for biological activity.

Integrating biocomputational techniques for Breast cancer drug discovery via the HER-2, BCRA, VEGF and ER protein targets

Computational modelling remains an indispensable technique in drug discovery. With myriad of high computing resources, and improved modelling algorithms, there has been a high-speed in the drug development cycle with promising success rate compared to the traditional route. For example, lapatinib; a well-known anticancer drug with clinical applications was discovered with computational drug design techniques. Similarly, molecular modelling has been applied to various disease areas ranging from cancer to neurodegenerative diseases. The techniques ranges from high-throughput virtual screening, molecular mechanics with generalized Born and surface area solvation (MM/GBSA) to molecular dynamics simulation. This review focuses on the application of computational modelling tools in the identification of drug candidates for Breast cancer. First, we begin with a succinct overview of molecular modelling in the drug discovery process. Next, we take note of special efforts on the developments and applications of combining these techniques with particular emphasis on possible breast cancer therapeutic targets such as estrogen receptor (ER), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), breast cancer gene 1 (BRCA1), and breast cancer gene 2 (BRCA2). Finally, we discussed the search for covalent inhibitors against these receptors using computational techniques, advances, pitfalls, possible solutions, and future perspectives.

In silico design of novel bioactive molecules to treat breast cancer with chlorogenic acid derivatives: a computational and SAR approach

Introduction: Cancer is a vast group of diseases comprising abnormal cells that multiply and grow uncontrollably, and it is one of the top causes of death globally. Several types of cancers are diagnosed, but the incidence of breast cancer, especially in postmenopausal women, is increasing daily. Chemotherapeutic agents used to treat cancer are generally associated with severe side effects on host cells, which has led to a search for safe and potential alternatives. Therefore, the present research has been conducted to find novel bioactive molecules to treat breast cancer with chlorogenic acid and its derivatives. Chlorogenic acid was selected because of its known activity in the field. Methods: Several chlorogenic acid derivatives were subjected to computational studies such as molecular docking, determination of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME), druglikeness, toxicity, and prediction of activity spectra for substances (PASS) to develop a potential inhibitor of breast cancer. The Protein Data Bank (PDB) IDs used for docking purposes were 7KCD, 3ERT, 6CHZ, 3HB5, and 1U72. Result: Exhaustive analysis of results has been conducted by considering various parameters, like docking score, binding energy, types of interaction with important amino acid residues in the binding pocket, ADME, and toxicity data of compounds. Among all the selected derivatives, CgE18, CgE11, CgAm13, CgE16, and CgE9 have astonishing interactions, excellent binding energy, and better stability in the active site of targeted proteins. The docking scores of compound CgE18 were -11.63 kcal/mol, -14.15 kcal/mol, and -12.90 kcal/mol against breast cancer PDB IDs 7KCD, 3HB5, and 1U72, respectively. The docking scores of compound CgE11 were -10.77 kcal/mol and -9.11 kcal/mol against breast cancer PDB IDs 3ERT and 6CHZ, respectively, whereas the docking scores of epirubicin hydrochloride were -3.85 kcal/mol, -6.4 kcal/mol, -8.76 kcal/mol, and -10.5 kcal/mol against PDB IDs 7KCD, 3ERT, 6CHZ, and 3HB5. The docking scores of 5-fluorouracil were found to be -5.25 kcal/mol, -3.43 kcal/mol, -3.73 kcal/mol, and -5.29 kcal/mol against PDB IDs 7KCD, 3ERT, 6CHZ, and 3HB5, which indicates the designed compounds have a better docking score than some standard drugs. Conclusion: Taking into account the results of molecular docking, drug likeness analysis, absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) evaluation, and PASS, it can be concluded that chlorogenic acid derivatives hold promise as potent inhibitors for the treatment of breast cancer.

Docking Investigation on Bis (Nitro Indazolyl) Methanes; Synthesis and Antimicrobial Activity Towards Breast Cancer Applications

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Bismuth (III) nitrate pentahydrate (BN) was found to be a mild and efficient catalyst for the electrophilic condensation of 5-nitroindazole with a wide range of aldehydes to obtain Bis (5-nitro indazolyl) methanes 3 (a-h) at ambient temperature. This was structurally confirmed from FTIR, NMR, and HR-MS technique. Molecular docking studies of all compounds was carried out using breast cancer-causing human estrogen receptor (ER) from Molegro Virtual Docker software. Hydroxy Bis (nitro indazolyl) methanes (3b) were shown better binding affinities and the score obtained was -150.146 Kcal/mol compared with Tamoxifen drug. The major H-bond interactions were observed with the compound 3f and the value was -5.679. The antimicrobial activity results revealed that compounds 3b and 3d showed promising activity against bacteria Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and maximum inhibition against Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus. Methoxy derivatives of Bis (nitro indazolyl methanes) (3e) have shown better antioxidant activity and low MIC (6.25 µg/ml) observed for the compounds 3a and 3b. The synthesized compounds have a very promising starting point for the development and improvement of anti-breast cancer drugs.

Review of in silico studies dedicated to the nuclear receptor family: Therapeutic prospects and toxicological concerns

Being in the center of both therapeutic and toxicological concerns, NRs are widely studied for drug discovery application but also to unravel the potential toxicity of environmental compounds such as pesticides, cosmetics or additives. High throughput screening campaigns (HTS) are largely used to detect compounds able to interact with this protein family for both therapeutic and toxicological purposes. These methods lead to a large amount of data requiring the use of computational approaches for a robust and correct analysis and interpretation. The output data can be used to build predictive models to forecast the behavior of new chemicals based on their in vitro activities. This atrticle is a review of the studies published in the last decade and dedicated to NR ligands in silico prediction for both therapeutic and toxicological purposes. Over 100 articles concerning 14 NR subfamilies were carefully read and analyzed in order to retrieve the most commonly used computational methods to develop predictive models, to retrieve the databases deployed in the model building process and to pinpoint some of the limitations they faced.

In Silico Screening of Marine Compounds as an Emerging and Promising Approach against Estrogen Receptor Alpha-Positive Breast Cancer

Presently, the majority of breast tumors are estrogen receptor (ER) positive. Breast cancer (BC) is defined by uncontrolled cell proliferation (CP) in breast tissue. BCs are caused by the overexpression of genes that promote CP in breast cells. The discovery of effective inhibitors is an excellent chemopreventive method. Our in silico approach analysis offers a pharmacoinformatics methodology for identifying lead molecules targeting cochaperone HSP90 and the epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)/neu receptor. BC has been associated with the high expression of these targets. The use of drug-likeness filters aided in determining the therapeutic properties of possible lead compounds. In this study, docking-based virtual screening (VS) was performed. Database of about 450 cancer marine compounds was used. The X-ray-assisted structure of ERα with 4-OHT (PDB code: 3ERT) was chosen for 4-OHT. A docking-based virtual screening was performed on the dataset supplied using the molecular operating environment (MOE) dock application. The binding energy (BE) and explanation of the protein inhibitor interaction (PII) are crucial findings for future both in terms of dry or wet lab research. The GBVI/WAS binding-free energy assessment (in kcal/mol) scores were used to grade the compounds. Compounds with a BE of less than -9.500 kcal/mol were deemed to be the most effective inhibitors. For further analysis, the top seven structurally diverse scaffolds were selected. Seven marine compounds exhibited the best docking score, which validates them to be potent anti-BC compounds. These compounds' bioactive potential and prospective drug-likeness profile make them promising leads for further experimental research.

Inhibitory activities of bipyrazoles: a patent review

Introduction: Bipyrazole is constituted from two pyrazole units either in their fully aromatic or partially hydrogenated forms. Pyrazoles are widely available in pharmaceutical and agrochemical products. Some pyrazoles are essential parts of commercial drugs in the market. This inspired us to collect the pharmacological activities of bipyrazoles that have potential therapeutic behaviors in several biological aspects but none of them were included in commercial drugs.Areas covered: This review covers all biological and pharmacological potentials of bipyrazole derivatives during 2010-2021. The topics of this review comprised anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antitubercular, antimalarial, insecticidal activities as well as enzymatic inhibitions.Expert opinion: Bipyrazoles demonstrated a wide array of potent activities against various diseases such as anticancer, antitubercular, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial activities. Those are of great benefits for medicinal researchers to develop promising building blocks of bipyrazoles for treatment of diseases. The SAR studies showed that metallated bipyrazoles had better biological activities than bipyrazole ligands. For example, gold(III) and iridium(II) complexes of bipyrazoles were proved to be anticancer agents, and copper(I) as well as silver(I) complexes had excellent antibacterial activities. Several bipyrazoles were reported as antimalarial inhibitors better than chloroquine, the possible COVID-19 drug.

Computer-Aided Ligand Discovery for Estrogen Receptor Alpha

Breast cancer (BCa) is one of the most predominantly diagnosed cancers in women. Notably, 70% of BCa diagnoses are Estrogen Receptor α positive (ERα+) making it a critical therapeutic target. With that, the two subtypes of ER, ERα and ERβ, have contrasting effects on BCa cells. While ERα promotes cancerous activities, ERβ isoform exhibits inhibitory effects on the same. ER-directed small molecule drug discovery for BCa has provided the FDA approved drugs tamoxifen, toremifene, raloxifene and fulvestrant that all bind to the estrogen binding site of the receptor. These ER-directed inhibitors are non-selective in nature and may eventually induce resistance in BCa cells as well as increase the risk of endometrial cancer development. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop novel drugs with alternative ERα targeting mechanisms that can overcome the limitations of conventional anti-ERα therapies. Several functional sites on ERα, such as Activation Function-2 (AF2), DNA binding domain (DBD), and F-domain, have been recently considered as potential targets in the context of drug research and discovery. In this review, we summarize methods of computer-aided drug design (CADD) that have been employed to analyze and explore potential targetable sites on ERα, discuss recent advancement of ERα inhibitor development, and highlight the potential opportunities and challenges of future ERα-directed drug discovery.