Identification of Potential Drugs for Colorectal Cancer Chemoprevention through Computational Analysis

Abstract

Introduction: Colorectal cancer is one of the common causes of hospitalizations, readmission, and poor quality of life due to disability, pain, and death. Most drugs identified to provide chemoprevention in colorectal cancer, such as NSAIDs, have a high level of toxicity. There is need to find novel drugs targeting colorectal cancer with favorable clinical profiles. Objective: The study aimed to identify possible colorectal cancer prevention drugs by comparing the docking scores (representing potential biologic activity) of Aspirin, Sulindac, and Celecoxib with their structurally similar analogs. Materials and Methods: Ligand-based virtual screening and structure-based virtual screening were done for aspirin, sulindac and celecoxib to identify potential drug-like compounds. Compounds that passed the screening, pharmacokinetic profiling, and toxicity testing were considered possible drugs for colorectal cancer chemoprevention. Results: The study identified 7 drug-like compounds from the ZINC database. ZINC02570895, with a better docking score than celecoxib coupled with favorable toxicity and metabolic profiles, was the most appropriate drug candidate for the inhibition of PDK-1. ZINC22309227, with a better docking score and favorable pharmacokinetic profile than sulindac was the most appropriate compound for further development into a MAP Kinase inhibitor. ZINC39406706, ZINC26469982, ZINC01847506, ZINC3382343, and ZINC01682308 had favorable toxicity profiles compared to aspirin and were most suitable for development of cyclooxygenase inhibitors in colorectal cancer prevention. Conclusion: In-vivo and in-vitro tests are needed to ascertain the biological activity, synthesizability and clinical use of the compounds.