In silico Identification and Computational Screening of Potential AFP Inhibitors Against Liver Cancer

Liver cancer is considered one of the most common types of cancer and a major cause of ephemerality worldwide having a higher prevalence rate in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a serum glycoprotein that belongs to a class of oncodevelopmental proteins and is also involved in tumor formation.

In the current effort, a hybrid approach of virtual screening followed by pharmacophore generation and molecular dynamic simulation analyses were performed. The screened top-ranked 10 docked compounds from the selected anti-cancer compound library were utilized to generate the ligand-based pharmacophore. Virtual screening was performed two-dimensional similarity search against the selected natural compound library based on their physicochemical properties. It was observed that all the compounds from the anti-cancer compound library and natural compound library showed similar binding resides.

Therefore, the top-ranked screened compounds that showed the least binding energy and highest binding affinity against AFP, obtained through the anti-cancer drug library and natural compound library were reported. The molecular docking analyses revealed that Leu-219, His-222, Lys-242, Lys-246, His-316, Glu-318, Ala-366, Val-367, Gly-475, Ile-479, Ala-471, Asp-478 were observed as potential residues for interaction.

The observed results of virtual screening, molecular docking, and MD simulation analyses entail noteworthy observations illustrating that NC002 was a potent inhibitor. The proposed compound NC002 may have potential against liver cancer by targeting AFP based on MD simulation analyses, PCA, and MM-GBSA.