scholarly journals Computational Screening of Natural Compounds for the Discovery of Potential Aromatase Inhibitors: A Promising Therapy for Estrogen-Dependent Breast Cancer

2021 ◽  
pp. 72-78
Author(s):  
Misbahuddin M. Rafeeq ◽  
Ziaullah M. Sain ◽  
Norah A. Alturki ◽  
Ahmad Alzamami ◽  
Saeed A. Asiri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Aromatase Inhibitors ◽  
Active Site ◽  
Natural Compounds ◽  
Computational Screening ◽  
Zinc Database ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Estrogen Receptor Positive ◽  
Er Positive ◽  
Control Compound

Aromatase plays a significant role in the progression of estrogen receptor-positive (ER-positive) breast cancer. The adverse side effects of currently used aromatase inhibitors (AIs) necessitate the development of new AIs that are more active, selective, and less toxic. This study used a computational approach to screen 503 natural compounds ZINC database against the aromatase active site. The best scoring hits ZINC69482055, ZINC69482510, and ZINC406719 exhibited strong binding with aromatase, with binding energy values of -8.45, -10.35, and -8.75 kcal/mol, respectively, which is comparatively higher than that of the control compound Anastrozole (-6.43 kcal/mol). Docking analysis showed that the selected hits interacted with the crucial residues of the aromatase active site. This study suggested that these compounds could be used as possible AIs in the cure of breast cancer. Hands-on bench work validation is needed to optimize these compounds as AIs.

scholarly journals Virtual screening of natural compounds as combinatorial agents from indian medicinal plants against estrogen positive breast cancer

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 266-275
Author(s):  
Shaleen Jain ◽  
Dr. Asmita Das
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Estrogen Receptor ◽  
Virtual Screening ◽  
Medicinal Plants ◽  
Natural Compounds ◽  
Binding Energies ◽  
Common Amino Acid ◽  
Estrogen Receptor Positive ◽  
Positive Breast Cancer

Facing worldwide challenges associated with multifactorial etiology of breast cancer, designing of combinatorial therapies using natural compounds is currently the emergent way of treating several cancers including breast cancer in a synergistic way, which may mitigate several problems associated with multiple receptor targeting. In this research, Estrogen receptor positive breast cancer was taken as prototype and several key receptors associated with this particular disease were targeted by virtual screening of natural compounds found in Indian originated medicinal plants using Computer aided Drug Designing (CADD) strategies. We found the combination of Carpusin, Paulownin Cornigerine, Nororientaline, Oryzalexin B, Romucosine H and Colchicine as effective against six potential receptors i.e. FGFR2, ESR1, PIK3CA, PIK3CB, PIK3CD and AR in Estrogen receptor positive breast cancer with their binding energies in the range of ∆G ≤ -8.0 Kcal/mol as well as significant number of common amino acid binding residues as compared with binding sites of receptors. Thus this research holds significant implications for the designing of combinatorial therapeutic agents against breast cancer which can be further tested in-vitro and in-vivo to prove their synergistic efficiency.

scholarly journals Immunological Differences Between Immune-Rich Estrogen Receptor–Positive and Immune-Rich Triple-Negative Breast Cancers

2020 ◽  
pp. 767-779
Author(s):  
Tess O’Meara ◽  
Michal Marczyk ◽  
Tao Qing ◽  
Vesal Yaghoobi ◽  
Kim Blenman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Estrogen Receptor ◽  
Triple Negative ◽  
Transforming Growth Factor ◽  
Molecular Taxonomy ◽  
Validation Data ◽  
Activation Markers ◽  
Estrogen Receptor Positive ◽  
Er Positive ◽  
Immune Related Genes

PURPOSE A subset of estrogen receptor–positive (ER-positive) breast cancer (BC) contains high levels of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), similar to triple-negative BC (TNBC). The majority of immuno-oncology trials target TNBCs because of the greater proportion of TIL-rich TNBCs. The extent to which the immune microenvironments of immune-rich ER-positive BC and TNBC differ is unknown. PATIENTS AND METHODS RNA sequencing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA; n = 697 ER-positive BCs; n = 191 TNBCs) were used for discovery; microarray expression data from Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Consortium (METABRIC; n = 1,186 ER-positive BCs; n = 297 TNBCs) was used for validation. Patients in the top 25th percentile of a previously published total TIL metagene score distribution were considered immune rich. We compared expression of immune cell markers, immune function metagenes, and immuno-oncology therapeutic targets among immune-rich subtypes. RESULTS Relative fractions of resting mast cells (TCGA Padj = .009; METABRIC Padj = 4.09E-15), CD8+ T cells (TCGA Padj = .015; METABRIC Padj = 0.390), and M2-like macrophages (TCGA Padj= 4.68E-05; METABRIC Padj = .435) were higher in immune-rich ER-positive BCs, but M0-like macrophages (TCGA Padj = 0.015; METABRIC Padj = .004) and M1-like macrophages (TCGA Padj = 9.39E-08; METABRIC Padj = 6.24E-11) were higher in immune-rich TNBCs. Ninety-one immune-related genes (eg, CXCL14, CSF3R, TGF-B3, LRRC32/GARP, TGFB-R2) and a transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) response metagene were significantly overexpressed in immune-rich ER-positive BCs, whereas 41 immune-related genes (eg, IFNG, PD-L1, CTLA4, MAGEA4) were overexpressed in immune-rich TNBCs in both discovery and validation data sets. TGF-β pathway member genes correlated negatively with expression of immune activation markers ( IFNG, granzyme-B, perforin) and positively with M2-like macrophages ( IL4, IL10, and MMP9) and regulatory T-cell ( FOXP3) markers in both subtypes. CONCLUSION Different immunotherapy strategies may be optimal in immune-rich ER-positive BC and TNBC. Drugs targeting the TGF-β pathway and M2-like macrophages are promising strategies in immune-rich ER-positive BCs to augment antitumor immunity.

Controversies in Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy for Breast Cancer

2012 ◽  
pp. 20-26
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Endocrine Therapy ◽  
Aromatase Inhibitors ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Premenopausal Women ◽  
Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy ◽  
Risk Of Recurrence ◽  
Er Positive ◽  
Added Benefit ◽  
Positive Breast Cancer

Overview: Adjuvant endocrine therapy for early-stage breast cancer has had the single biggest impact on improving survival from the disease—with tamoxifen alone contributing to saving many thousands of lives. In postmenopausal women, additional progress has been made by the incorporation of aromatase inhibitors into the treatment of early-stage, estrogen receptor (ER)–positive breast cancer, as several large well-conducted trials have established either “up-front” or “switch” strategies that are now widely used. To date, both have been shown to be beneficial when compared with tamoxifen alone, although controversy exists as to which approach is superior. Increasingly, extended adjuvant therapy is being considered, as “longer may be better” for some women who have an ongoing risk of recurrence beyond 5 years. However, controversy remains as to how long adjuvant endocrine therapy should be given for; in clinical practice, clinicians balance the level of risk for individual patients versus any ongoing toxicity concerns. For premenopausal women, with ER-positive breast cancer, tamoxifen remains the gold standard with uncertainty in the added overall benefit of ovarian suppression. Important clinical trials have recently been completed that may help answers this question, including whether complete estrogen deprivation using a luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) agonist plus aromatase inhibitors (AIs) is of added benefit. In recent years, molecular profiling of ER-positive breast cancer has started to distinguish those women with a low risk of recurrence on endocrine therapy who may not need chemotherapy. Thus, with more therapy options and greater tumour stratification, modern, adjuvant endocrine therapy is becoming increasingly personalised to suit each individual patient's risk.

scholarly journals Computational screening for potential drug candidates against the SARS-CoV-2 main protease

F1000Research ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Silva Andrade ◽  
Preetam Ghosh ◽  
Debmalya Barh ◽  
Sandeep Tiwari ◽  
Raner José Santana Silva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Compounds ◽  
Potential Drug ◽  
Drug Candidates ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Computational Screening ◽  
Main Protease ◽  
Zinc Database ◽  
Structural Assembly

Background: SARS-CoV-2 is the causal agent of the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. They are enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses of the Coronaviridae family. Proteases of SARS-CoV-2 are necessary for viral replication, structural assembly, and pathogenicity. The approximately 33.8 kDa Mpro protease of SARS-CoV-2 is a non-human homologue and is highly conserved among several coronaviruses, indicating that Mpro could be a potential drug target for Coronaviruses. Methods: Herein, we performed computational ligand screening of four pharmacophores (OEW, remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine and N3) that are presumed to have positive effects against SARS-CoV-2 Mpro protease (6LU7), and also screened 50,000 natural compounds from the ZINC Database dataset against this protease target. Results: We found 40 pharmacophore-like structures of natural compounds from diverse chemical classes that exhibited better affinity of docking as compared to the known ligands. The 11 best selected ligands, namely ZINC1845382, ZINC1875405, ZINC2092396, ZINC2104424, ZINC44018332, ZINC2101723, ZINC2094526, ZINC2094304, ZINC2104482, ZINC3984030, and ZINC1531664, are mainly classified as beta-carboline, alkaloids, and polyflavonoids, and all displayed interactions with dyad CYS145 and HIS41 from the protease pocket in a similar way as other known ligands. Conclusions: Our results suggest that these 11 molecules could be effective against SARS-CoV-2 protease and may be subsequently tested in vitro and in vivo to develop novel drugs against this virus.

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