Pharmacokinetics and Toxicological Profiling of Surfactin A: An In silico Approach

Surfactin A, a cyclic lipopeptide from Bacillus subtilis, exhibited a wide spectrum therapeutic profile. But it’s drug likeness has not been thoroughly assessed yet. Thus, the objective of the present work was to simulate it’s drug likeness by predicting the pharmacokinetic and toxicological profiling parameters. ADME profiling was carried out by using StarDrop. Integrated Derek Nexus with StarDrop was used for the toxicological prediction against 40 toxicological end points. Metabolism of Surfactin A was modelled with three isoforms of cytochrome P450: 3A4, 2D6 and 2C9; and composite site lability (CSL) was analyzed. Only the alkyl regions in Surfactin A were found to be moderately labile to metabolism, indicating their tendency to get oxidized and form dealkylated Surfactin A. Toxicological prediction suggested that Surfactin A is not carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic, hepatotoxic, neurotoxic, nephrotoxic and even clean for rest of the toxicological end points. Good human intestinal absorption (HIA) and poor blood brain barrier (BBB) crossing ability were also predicted for Surfactin A.