In silico analyzing the molecular interactions of plant-derived inhibitors against E6AP, p53, and c-Myc binding sites of HPV type 16 E6 oncoprotein

Human papillomaviruses (HPV) are a group of strong human carcinogen viruses considered to be the fourth leading cause of mortality among women in the world. HPV is the most important cause of cervical cancer, which is the second most common cancer in women living in low and middle-income countries. To date, there is no effective cure for an ongoing HPV infection; therefore, it is required to investigate anticancer drugs against this life-threatening infection. In this study, we collected more than 100 plant-derived compounds with anti-cancer and antiviral potentials from a variety of papers. Smile formats of these compounds (ligand), were harvested from PubChem database and examined based on the absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity properties by programs such as Swiss ADME, admetSAR, and pkCSM. Twenty compounds, which were likely to be the HPV16E6 inhibitor, were selected for docking calculations. We examined these natural inhibitors against the HPV16 E6 oncogenic protein. Eventually, three of these compounds were used as the most potent inhibitors (Ginkgetin (peculiarly), Hypericin and Apigetrin) were probably used as the possible source of cancer treatment caused by E6 oncoprotein. In this research, we conducted the docking calculations by Autodock 4.2.6 software. Docking analysis showed the interaction of these plant-originated inhibitors with E6AP, p53, and Myc binding sites on the E6 oncoprotein which support the normal function of E6AP, p53, and Myc.