Abstract

PHYTOCHEMICAL AND MOLECULAR DOCKING ANALYSES OF PROSOPIS JULIFLORA DERIVED PHYTOCHEMICALS AGAINST ANTI-APOPTOTIC PROTEIN BCL-2

Senbagarani Renganathan, Sunil Kumar Sahu and Kandasamy Kathiresan*

ABSTRACT

Anti-apoptotic proteins play a pivotal role in the deactivation of the apoptosis process in cancer. Apoptosis process can be activated in cancer state by inhibiting anti-apoptotic proteins (BCL2) and inhibition of antiapoptotic Bcl-2 family members is a major target for anticancer therapies. In the present study the drought tolerant and highly invasive plant species Prosopis juliflora (Sw.) was initially subjected for phytochemical screening followed by Gas chromatography-mass spectroscopic analyses which revealed the presence of of alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids, phenolics and tannins, and five bioactive compounds namely 2-pentadecanone; butyl 2-ethylhexyl phthalate; methyl 10-methylheptadecanoate; methyl oleate; and phorbol-12, 13- dihexanoate. These identified bioactive compounds were screened against BCL2 protein using molecular docking approach. Of five compounds phorbol-12,13-dihexanoate showed best docking score of – 15.644 Kcal/mol followed by methyl oleate (-13.191 Kcal/mol) than the previously reported potent inhibitors indicating the therapeutic importance of P. juliflora-derived phytochemicals against anti-apoptic BCL2 protein

Keywords: Prosopis juliflora; phytochemicals; apoptosis; BCL2; molecular docking; GC-MS.