Identifying potential neuroprotective polyphenols targeting endoplasmic reticulum stress through an in silico...

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is essential in many cellular processes, including protein processing, lipid metabolism, and calcium storage. Dysregulation of ER function has been linked with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, etc. The primary pathological alteration explicated in the diseases is the accumulation of misfolded proteins in the neuronal cells. ER stress-associated activation of PERK-mediated pro-apoptotic cell death leads to neurodegeneration. In this study, we have primarily screened the potential polyphenols evidenced for neuroprotective activity. The 24 polyphenols were selected to explore their binding affinity towards various proteins of ER cascade such as pPERK (phospho-PERK), EIF2 (Eukaryotic Initiation Factor 2), and ATF4 (Activating Transcription Factor 4). On the basis of binding affinity, four phytopolyphenols were further selected for in-silico ADMET and molecular dynamic simulation. Among them curcumin found to be the most promising and serve as a potential hit against all three targets of ER cascade. The selected proteins' active site has demonstrated high stability of curcumin binding according to molecular dynamics findings. Though curcumin exhibited a significant hit in interaction with targets but needs to be further improved in drug-ability criteria. Thus, seventy derivatives of curcumin scaffold (from the published literature) were also screened with improve in druggability criteria, which showed good interaction with unfolded protein response related targets. The new scaffolds serve considerable potential to be developed as novel polyphenolic lead for neurodegenerative disorders.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.