Investigating the Inhibitory Effect of Curcumin on FGFR۴: Insights from Docking Studies

Liver cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death worldwide in men and the sixthmost frequent cause of cancer death in developed countries. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is aprimary liver cancer originating in hepatocytes, the liver's main functional cells. Curcumin, as a naturalsubstance known for ages demonstrates a diverse impact on both preventing cancer and complementingcancer treatments. The great advantage of using nutraceuticals of vegetable origin in comparison topopular cytostatic drugs is the minimized side effects and reduced toxicity. The role of the FGFR۴receptor in HCC is known. In this study, the inhibitory mechanism of ponatinib an effective FGFR۴inhibitor was investigated, and the inhibitory effect of the natural compound curcumin was examinedby exploring its mechanisms. The PDB structure was obtained from the PDB database. The curcumincompound was also retrieved from PubChem. After completing the docking preparation steps using theUCSF Chimera program, docking was performed using Autodock Vina. The residues involved in theinteraction between the ligand and the protein were determined by LigPlot+. Curcumin docked with theapo form of FGFR۴ (PDB ID: ۴TYG), exhibiting a high binding energy (ΔG=-۸.۱ Kcal/mol), comparedto ponatinib docked with the apo form of FGFR۴ (ΔG=-۱۰.۵ Kcal/mol). Additionally, Lys۵۷ residuewas found to be common with residues associated with ponatinib. Furthermore, the result of curcuminbinding to FGFR۴ (PDB ID: ۴TYJ) as the post-drug-binding conformation, revealed that curcuminshares common interactions with the ۶ residues connected to ponatinib. In conclusion, this studyillustrates the inhibitory effect of curcumin on FGFR۴, rendering it a potential FGFR۴ inhibitor.Nevertheless, further investigations are warranted to explore the inhibitory effects of curcumin onFGFR۴ more comprehensively.

کلیدواژه ها:

Liver cancer ، FGFR۴ ، Curcumin ، Ponatinib ، Molecular Docking