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Molecular Docking study of flavonoids to block the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor.
* 1, 2, 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11
1  Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of Camagüey, Camagüey 74650, Cuba
2  Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Antwerp, Antwerp BE-2610, Belgium
3  Laboratory of Microbiology, Parasitology and Hygiene (LMPH), University of Antwerp, Antwerp BE-2610, Belgium
4  Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry. University of Antwerp, Antwerp BE-2610, Belgium.
5  Laboratory of Microbiology, Parasitology and Hygiene (LMPH), University of Antwerp, Antwerp BE-2610, Belgium.
6  Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universida de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain 5 CIQUP / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, 4169–007 Porto, Portugal.
7  Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universida de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain Institute of Applied Chemical Sciences, Autonomous University of Chile, Santiago de Chile 7500912, Chile.
8  Center for Industrial Biotechnology (CEBI), Universidad de Oriente, Santiago de Cuba 90500, Cuba.
9  Oncology Research Group (CORE). University of Antwerp, Antwerp BE-2610, Belgium.
10  Bioinformatics Group, Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Havana, Cuba.
11  Department of Chemistry. Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of Camagüey, Camagüey 74650, Cuba. Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry. University of Antwerp, Antwerp BE-2610, Belgium. Laboratory of Microbiology, Parasitology and Hygiene (LMPH), Universi
Academic Editor: Julio A. Seijas

Abstract:

Anti-HIF flavonoids have been described with antitumor activities by interfering with a presumed antioxidant mechanism through direct and indirect ways of overexpression of Hypoxia Inducible Factor (HIF-1α). The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a protein homologous to HIF-1α and is overexpressed in smoking patients suffering from lung and breast cancer. The interaction of thirteen flavonoids group with the AhR was evaluated by molecular docking. The AhR:ARNT model obtained by SwissModel was used for docking with the MOE 2019.01 program, as well as several servers for the determination of protein-protein interactions and alanine mutations. For the blocking of AhR:functional ARNT different interaction sites were identified. The interface between the bHLH and PAS-A domains plays a major role between the sites. The blocking capacity to AhR:ARNT for flavonoids 4´,7-dihydroxy-flavone, fisetin, luteolin, flavone, apigenin, and galangin was around 50% to 60%. None of the flavonoids evaluated bound to the PAS-B domain (AhR active site). Only flavone and fisetin were found to be active to bind to ARNT at the level of the α-helical region in the PAS-A domain of this monomeric protein. All flavonoids studied bound to AhR (with the exception of flavone) and to ARNT (except for the compounds 3,7-dihydroxy-flavone and kaempferol). The best flavonoid for blocking the formation of the AhR:ARNT heterodimer was fisetin, which is found in food sources such as strawberries, apples, and grapes, and has shown the ability to reduce pro-cancer inflammatory markers in colorectal cancer patients.

Keywords: Flavonoids, docking, Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor.
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