Global prevalence of breast cancer and its rising frequency makes it a key area of research in drug discovery programs. The research article describes the development of field based 3D-QSAR model based on human breast cancer cell line MCF7 in vitro anticancer activity, which defines the molecular level understanding and regions of structure-activity relationship for triterpene maslinic acid and its analogs. The key features such as average shape, hydrophobic regions and electrostatic patterns of active compounds were mined and mapped to virtually screen potential analogs. Then, field points based descriptors were used to develop a 3D-QSAR model by aligning known active compounds onto identified pharmacophore template. The derived LOO validated PLS regression QSAR model showed acceptable r2 0.92 and q2 0.75. After screening through Lipinski’s rule of five filter for oral bioavailability, ADMET risk filter for drug like features, and synthetic accessibility for chemical synthesis, out of 593 hits, 39 were left top hits. Docking screening was performed through identified potential targets namely, AKR1B10, NR3C1, PTGS2, and HER2. Finally, compound P-902 was identified as best hit. This study, would be of great help in lead identification and optimization for early drug discovery.
Malaria is one of the most prevailing fatal diseases causing between 1.2 and 2.7 million deaths all over the world each year. Further, development of resistance against the frontline anti-malarial drugs has created an alarming situation, which requires intensive drug discovery to develop new, more effective, affordable and accessible anti-malarial agents possessing novel modes of action. Over the past few years triterpenoids from higher plants have shown a wide range of anti-malarial activities. As a part of our drug discovery program for anti-malarial agents from Indian medicinal plants, roots of
Glycyrrhiza
glabra
were chemically investigated, which resulted in the isolation and characterization of 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) as a major constituent. The in vitro studies against P. falciparum showed significant (IC50 1.69µg/ml) anti-malarial potential for GA. Similarly, the molecular docking studies showed adequate docking (LibDock) score of 71.18 for GA and 131.15 for standard anti-malarial drug chloroquine. Further, in silico pharmacokinetic and drug-likeness studies showed that GA possesses drug-like properties. Finally, in vivo evaluation showed a dose dependent anti-malarial activity ranging from 68–100% at doses of 62.5–250mg/kg on day 8. To the best of our knowledge this is the first ever report on the anti-malarial potential of GA. Further work on optimization of the anti-malarial lead is under progress.
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