Potential of Aspergillus flavus Secondary Metabolites in Breast Cancer Treatment In-silico study of fungal compounds targeting tumor suppressor proteins

Authors

  • Shahad S. Alsharif Department of Biological Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 80200, Saudi Arabia.
  • Bayan H. Sajer Department of Biological Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 80200, Saudi Arabia; Immunology Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22317/jcms.v11i2.1777

Keywords:

Molecular docking, Breast Neoplasms, Genes, Tumor Suppressor, Pharmaceutical Preparations

Abstract

Objectives: Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide, with existing treatments often accompanied by significant side effects. This study aimed to explore the therapeutic potential of secondary metabolites derived from Aspergillus flavus in targeting key tumor suppressor proteins associated with breast cancer, namely BRCA1, BRCA2, and TP53.

Methods: An in-silico approach was employed to screen and evaluate fungal secondary metabolites. Molecular docking studies were conducted to assess the binding affinity of these compounds to BRCA1, BRCA2, and TP53 proteins. In addition, the pharmacological profiles of the compounds were analyzed, including ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion), cytotoxicity on cancer cell lines, and cardiotoxicity predictions.

Results: Among the analyzed secondary metabolites, vitexin demonstrated the highest binding affinity to BRCA1, BRCA2, and TP53, suggesting a strong potential for inhibiting these tumor suppressor proteins. The compound also showed favorable pharmacokinetic and safety profiles, indicating its suitability as a drug candidate.

Conclusion: Vitexin from Aspergillus flavus shows promise as a lead compound for the development of selective and effective inhibitors targeting tumor suppressor proteins involved in breast cancer. This study provides a foundational step toward designing safer and more targeted therapeutics using fungal-derived bioactive compounds.

References

R. Al-Kahtani, N. Mahmood, S. Aamir, Z. Anjum, Visualizing breast cancer research trends in KSA: A bibliometric analysis, Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences, 18 (2023) 1472-1479.

O.A. Abulkhair, F.M. Al Tahan, S.E. Young, S.M. Musaad, A.-R.M. Jazieh, The first

national public breast cancer screening program in Saudi Arabia, Annals of Saudi medicine, 30 (2010) 350-357.

I.A. El Hag, R. Katchabeswaran, L.C. Chiedozi, S.M. Kollur, Pattern and incidence of cancer in Northern Saudi Arabia, Saudi medical journal, 23 (2002) 1210-1213.

E.M. Ibrahim, A.A. Zeeneldin, B.B. Sadiq, A.A. Ezzat, The present and the future of breast cancer burden in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Medical Oncology, 25 (2008) 387-393.

WHO., Saudi Arabia fact sheet. International Agency for Research on Cancer; 2022.

Available from: https://gco.iarc.fr/today/data/factsheets/populations/682-saudi-arabia-factsheets. pdf. Accessed July 17, 2023, (2023).

H. Sung, J. Ferlay, R.L. Siegel, M. Laversanne, I. Soerjomataram, A. Jemal, F. Bray, Global cancer statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries, CA: a cancer journal for clinicians, 71 (2021) 209-249.

A.-M. Buga, A.O. Docea, C. Albu, R.D. Malin, D.E. Branisteanu, G. Ianosi, S.L. Ianosi, A.

Iordache, D. Calina, Molecular and cellular stratagem of brain metastases associated with melanoma, Oncology Letters, 17 (2019) 4170-4175.

A.O. Docea, P. Mitrut, D. Grigore, D. Pirici, D.C. Calina, E. Gofita, Immunohistochemical expression of TGF beta (TGF-beta), TGF beta receptor 1 (TGFBR1), and Ki67 in intestinal variant of gastric adenocarcinomas, Rom J Morphol Embryol, 53 (2012) 683-692.

E. Blondeaux, L. Arecco, K. Punie, R. Graffeo, A. Toss, C. De Angelis, L. Trevisan, G.

Buzzatti, S.C. Linn, P. Dubsky, Germline TP53 pathogenic variants and breast cancer: A

narrative review, Cancer treatment reviews, 114 (2023) 102522.

J. Duncan, J. Reeves, T. Cooke, BRCA1 and BRCA2 proteins: roles in health and disease, Molecular pathology, 51 (1998) 237.

K. Yoshida, Y. Miki, Role of BRCA1 and BRCA2 as regulators of DNA repair,

transcription, and cell cycle in response to DNA damage, Cancer science, 95 (2004) 866-871.

B. Friedenson, The BRCA1/2 pathway prevents hematologic cancers in addition to breast and ovarian cancers, BMC cancer, 7 (2007) 1-11.

A.R. Venkitaraman, How do mutations affecting the breast cancer genes BRCA1 and

BRCA2 cause cancer susceptibility?, DNA repair, 81 (2019) 102668.

A.G. Arnold, E. Otegbeye, M.H. Fleischut, E.A. Glogowski, B. Siegel, S.R. Boyar, E. Salo-Mullen, K. Amoroso, M. Sheehan, J.L. Berliner, Assessment of individuals with BRCA1 and BRCA2 large rearrangements in high-risk breast and ovarian cancer families, Breast cancer research and treatment, 145 (2014) 625-634.

A. Butera, I. Amelio, Deciphering the significance of p53 mutant proteins, Trends in Cell Biology, (2024).

Liu, B., Zhou, H., Tan, L., Siu, K. T. H., & Guan, X. Y. (2024). Exploring treatment options in cancer: tumor treatment strategies. Signal transduction and targeted therapy, 9(1), 175.‏

M.E. Abd El-Hack, S. Abdelnour, M. Alagawany, M. Abdo, M.A. Sakr, A.F. Khafaga, S.A.

Mahgoub, S.S. Elnesr, M.G. Gebriel, Microalgae in modern cancer therapy: Current knowledge, Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy, 111 (2019) 42-50.

J.-B. Jouda, C.D. Mbazoa, P. Sarkar, P.K. Bag, J. Wandji, Anticancer and antibacterial

secondary metabolites from the endophytic fungus Penicillium sp. CAM64 against multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria, African health sciences, 16 (2016) 734-743.

A.K. Kalimuthu, P. Pavadai, T. Panneerselvam, E. Babkiewicz, J. Pijanowska, P. Mrówka, G. Rajagopal, V. Deepak, K. Sundar, P. Maszczyk, Cytotoxic potential of bioactive compounds from Aspergillus flavus, an endophytic fungus isolated from Cynodon dactylon, against breast cancer: Experimental and computational approach, Molecules, 27 (2022) 8814.

A.S. El-Sayed, R.A. Zayed, A.F. El-Baz, W.M. Ismaeil, Bioprocesses optimization and

anticancer activity of camptothecin from Aspergillus flavus, an endophyte of in vitro cultured Astragalus fruticosus, Molecular Biology Reports, 49 (2022) 4349-4364.

T.N. Almanaa, G. Rabie, R.M. El-Mekkawy, M.A. Yassin, N. Saleh, N. El-Gazzar,

Antioxidant, antimicrobial and antiproliferative activities of fungal metabolite produced by Aspergillus flavus on in vitro study, Food Science and Technology, 42 (2021) e01421.

Pal, S., et al. (2022). Fungal secondary metabolites as potential anticancer agents: Current perspectives and future challenges. Phytomedicine Plus, 2(1), 100220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phyplu.2021.100220

K. Raval, T. Ganatra, Basics, types and applications of molecular docking: A review, IP International Journal of Comprehensive and Advanced Pharmacology, 7 (2022) 12-16.

R. Jakhar, M. Dangi, A. Khichi, A.K. Chhillar, Relevance of molecular docking studies in drug designing, Current Bioinformatics, 15 (2020) 270-278.

. Shukla, T. Tripathi, Molecular dynamics simulation in drug discovery: opportunities and challenges, Innovations and implementations of computer aided drug discovery strategies in rational drug design, (2021) 295-316.

C.A. Lipinski, Lead-and drug-like compounds: the rule-of-five revolution, Drug discovery today: Technologies, 1 (2004) 337-341.

B. Jayaram, T. Singh, G. Mukherjee, A. Mathur, S. Shekhar, V. Shekhar, Sanjeevini: a

freely accessible web-server for target directed lead molecule discovery, BMC bioinformatics, Springer, 2012, pp. 1-13.

L.E. Mendie, S. Hemalatha, Molecular docking of phytochemicals targeting GFRs as

therapeutic sites for cancer: an in silico study, Applied biochemistry and biotechnology, 194 (2022) 215-231.

A. Muhammad, B.S. Katsayal, G.E. Forcados, I. Malami, I.B. Abubakar, A.I. Kandi, A.M. Idris, S.u. Yusuf, S.M. Musa, N. Monday, In silico predictions on the possible mechanism of action of selected bioactive compounds against breast cancer, In Silico Pharmacology, 8 (2020) 1-13.

J.I. Vandenberg, M.D. Perry, M.J. Perrin, S.A. Mann, Y. Ke, A.P. Hill, hERG K+ channels:

structure, function, and clinical significance, Physiological reviews, (2012).

H.-M. Lee, M.-S. Yu, S.R. Kazmi, S.Y. Oh, K.-H. Rhee, M.-A. Bae, B.H. Lee, D.-S. Shin,

K.-S. Oh, H. Ceong, Computational determination of hERG-related cardiotoxicity of drug

candidates, BMC bioinformatics, 20 (2019) 67-73.

R. C Braga, V. M Alves, M. FB Silva, E. Muratov, D. Fourches, A. Tropsha, C. H Andrade, Tuning HERG out: antitarget QSAR models for drug development, Current topics in medicinal chemistry, 14 (2014) 1399-1415.

R.C. Braga, V.M. Alves, M.F. Silva, E. Muratov, D. Fourches, L.M. Lião, A. Tropsha, C.H.

Andrade, Pred‐hERG: A novel web‐accessible computational tool for predicting cardiac toxicity, Molecular informatics, 34 (2015) 698-701.

Y. Hu, Q. Ren, X. Liu, L. Gao, L. Xiao, W. Yu, In silico prediction of human organ toxicity via artificial intelligence methods, Chemical Research in Toxicology, 36 (2023) 1044-1054.

K.A. Majorek, M.D. Zimmerman, M. Grabowski, I.G. Shabalin, H. Zheng, W. Minor,

Assessment of crystallographic structure quality and protein–ligand complex structure validation, Structural Biology in Drug Discovery: Methods, Techniques, and Practices, (2020) 253-275.

A.A. Lagunin, V.I. Dubovskaja, A.V. Rudik, P.V. Pogodin, D.S. Druzhilovskiy, T.A.

Gloriozova, D.A. Filimonov, N.G. Sastry, V.V. Poroikov, CLC-Pred: A freely available webservice for in silico prediction of human cell line cytotoxicity for drug-like compounds, PloS one, 13 (2018) e0191838.

D. Ji, M. Xu, C.C. Udenigwe, D. Agyei, Physicochemical characterisation, molecular

docking, and drug-likeness evaluation of hypotensive peptides encrypted in flaxseed proteome, Current research in food science, 3 (2020) 41-50.

G.B. Khan, M. Qasim, A. Rasul, U.A. Ashfaq, A.M. Alnuqaydan, Identification of lignan

compounds as new 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase inhibitors for lung cancer, Metabolites, 13 (2022) 34.

T.M. Fakih, D.S.F. Ramadhan, F. Darusman, In silico activity identification of cyclo peptide alkaloids from Zizyphus spina-christi species against Sars-Cov-2 main protease, Jurnal Biodjati, 6 (2021) 71-81.

P. Chinnasamy, R. Arumugam, In silico prediction of anticarcinogenic bioactivities of

traditional anti-inflammatory plants used by tribal healers in Sathyamangalam wildlife

Sanctuary, India, Egyptian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 5 (2018) 265-279.

B.E. Oyinloye, T.A. Adekiya, R.T. Aruleba, O.A. Ojo, B.O. Ajiboye, Structure-based

docking studies of GLUT4 towards exploring selected phytochemicals from Solanum

xanthocarpum as a therapeutic target for the treatment of cancer, Current drug discovery technologies, 16 (2019) 406-416.

J. Suganya, M. Radha, D.L. Naorem, M. Nishandhini, In silico docking studies of selected flavonoids-natural healing agents against breast cancer, Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, 15 (2014) 8155-8159.

Y. Han, J. Zhang, C.Q. Hu, X. Zhang, B. Ma, P. Zhang, In silico ADME and toxicity

prediction of ceftazidime and its impurities, Frontiers in pharmacology, 10 (2019) 434.

A. Daina, O. Michielin, V. Zoete, SwissADME: a free web tool to evaluate

pharmacokinetics, drug-likeness and medicinal chemistry friendliness of small molecules, Scientific reports, 7 (2017) 42717.

Published

2025-04-26

How to Cite

Alsharif, S. S., & Sajer , B. H. (2025). Potential of Aspergillus flavus Secondary Metabolites in Breast Cancer Treatment In-silico study of fungal compounds targeting tumor suppressor proteins. Journal of Contemporary Medical Sciences, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.22317/jcms.v11i2.1777