The prostate cancer-fighting powers of soursop fruit: in silico evaluation to give insight into binding affinity of selected bioactive compounds on selected prostate cancer targets.

Soursop plant, (Annona muricata) which is indigenous to the tropics belongs to the family Annonaceae. Parts of the plant has been used in traditional medicine to cure several diseases. The physiological, physicochemical and nutritional characteristics of soursop plant has been reported in several studies, alongside the presence of bioactive compounds in the pulp, seed, columella and peel. Prostate cancer is the most cancer diagnosis in men and is still the third-leading cause of cancer related death in males.

Bioactive compounds isolated from the pulp have demonstrated cytotoxic activity against human prostate cancer cells, as reported by several studies. Amongst which seven were selected for the purpose of this study. This study employed in silico method to provide insight into the binding affinity of some bioactive compounds present in soursop pulp as compared to native ligand present in the target enzymes Androgen Receptor (AR) and primary poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) with PDB (Protein Data Bank) codes, 2HYD and 7ONS respectively.

The results from this study, showed that all the chosen bioactive compounds had comparable binding activity to the native ligand with the exception of annonacin. These findings could give insights into the development of new pharmaceutical drugs with more cytotoxic effect against prostate cancer or even serve as alternate method for treating prostate cancer.