Nguyen Tan Khanh

Institute of Applied Life Sciences, Dong A University, Da Nang city, Vietnam

Scientific Management Department, Dong A University, Da Nang City, Vietnam

Abstract

Cancer is a major health burden and a leading cause of death worldwide, with numerous new molecules being studied and developed as therapeutic agents. In this study, the cytotoxicity of compounds derived from Goniothalamus elegans was evaluated for possible anticancer activity. It was observed that the crude methanol extract of G. elegans exerted the strongest cytotoxic activity against SW-480, AGS, and SK-LU-1 cell lines. In addition, two isolated alkaloids—namely, lysicamine and liriodenine—also showed strong inhibitory ability against similar cancer cell lines. To further investigate the compounds’ mechanism of action, a molecular docking approach was utilized to evaluate the potential of the two candidates to interact with the epidermal growth factor receptor. This assay estimated that lysicamine and liriodenine acquired protein binding affinities of −8.8 and −9.7 kcal/mol, respectively. Finally, the stabilities of the ligand–protein complexes were evaluated using molecular dynamics simulations of 100 ns each.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/1934578X221138435