246
Views
0
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Articles

Exploring novel and potent molecules for disrupting DEPTOR-mTOR interaction through structure-steered screening, extra-exactitude molecular docking, prime binding free energy estimation and voguish molecular dynamics

, , , , , , , , , , & show all
Pages 12037-12047 | Received 11 Jan 2021, Accepted 07 Aug 2021, Published online: 25 Aug 2021
 

Abstract

Dep domain containing mTOR interacting protein (DEPTOR) has critical implications in the development and progression of human malignancies. Increased expression of DEPTOR promotes the growth of tumor cells by inhibiting the mTORC1, which alleviates the negative feedback inhibition by mTORC1 downstream target S6Ks on PI3K/AKT pathway thereby promotes cell survival and prevents apoptosis. This clearly suggests that targetting DEPTOR-mTOR interactions through small molecules may prove as an effective strategy for circumventing distinct cancers. In this study, we employed a top-down approach for finding three novel molecules which may prove effective in disrupting Deptor–mTOR interaction. Following DEPTOR modelling and validation we performed grid-directed structure-based screening by specifying the residues of DEPTOR known to interact with mTOR. A library of 10,000 protein–protein disrupting molecules was screened against the defined region of DEPTOR. From the screened molecules, 30 molecules with highest binding affinity were chosen for molecular docking. Thirty (30) extra-precision molecular docking experiments and 30 molecular mechanics generalized born surface area (MMGBSA) assays were performed. Following this top 10 molecules in terms of binding affinity were selected and the interaction profile of their corresponding docked files was generated. The top three molecules were finally selected after taking all the three parameters including docking score, binding energy value and interaction profile into consideration. For atomistic insights regarding DEPTOR-topmost hit interactions, molecular dynamics was performed for 100 ns. This molecule after further evaluation may prove as promising candidate for anticancer therapy.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

Ganai SA happily acknowledges SERB for assisting financially in the form of big grant with File No: YSS/2015/001267. Suma M acknowledges Shanmugha Arts Science Technology & Research Academy for support in the form of Schrödinger software. Qadri RA also acknowledges Department of Science & Technology for financial assistance in the form of project (File No: SR/SO/HS-0214/2012).

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 61.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 1,074.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.