A Computational QSAR, Molecular Docking and In Vitro Cytotoxicity Study of Novel Thiouracil-Based Drugs with Anticancer Activity against Human-DNA Topoisomerase II

Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Oct 5;23(19):11799. doi: 10.3390/ijms231911799.

Abstract

Computational chemistry, molecular docking, and drug design approaches, combined with the biochemical evaluation of the antitumor activity of selected derivatives of the thiouracil-based dihydroindeno pyrido pyrimidines against topoisomerase I and II. The IC50 of other cell lines including the normal human lung cell line W138, lung cancer cell line, A549, breast cancer cell line, MCF-7, cervical cancer, HeLa, and liver cancer cell line HepG2 was evaluated using biochemical methods. The global reactivity descriptors and physicochemical parameters were computed, showing good agreement with the Lipinski and Veber's rules of the drug criteria. The molecular docking study of the ligands with the topoisomerase protein provides the binding sites, binding energies, and deactivation constant for the inhibition pocket. Various biochemical methods were used to evaluate the IC50 of the cell lines. The QSAR model was developed for colorectal cell line HCT as a case study. Four QSAR statistical models were predicted between the IC50 of the colorectal cell line HCT to correlate the anticancer activity and the computed physicochemical and quantum chemical global reactivity descriptors. The predictive power of the models indicates a good correlation between the observed and the predicted activity.

Keywords: QSAR; anticancer therapy; in vitro cytotoxicity; molecular docking; topoisomerase II.

MeSH terms

  • Antineoplastic Agents* / chemistry
  • Antineoplastic Agents* / pharmacology
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Colorectal Neoplasms*
  • DNA Topoisomerases, Type I / metabolism
  • DNA Topoisomerases, Type II / metabolism
  • Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor
  • Humans
  • Molecular Docking Simulation
  • Molecular Structure
  • Pyrimidines / pharmacology
  • Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship
  • Structure-Activity Relationship
  • Thiouracil / pharmacology

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Pyrimidines
  • Thiouracil
  • DNA Topoisomerases, Type I
  • DNA Topoisomerases, Type II