Quantitative structure-activity relationship and molecular docking of artemisinin derivatives to vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1

Abstract

Background/aim: The antimalarial drug artemisinin has been shown to exert anticancer activity through anti-angiogenic effects. For further drug development, it may be useful to have derivatives with improved anti-angiogenic properties.

Material and methods: We performed molecular docking of 52 artemisinin derivatives to vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFR1, VEGFR2), and VEGFA ligand using Autodock4 and AutodockTools-1.5.7.rc1 using the Lamarckian genetic algorithm. Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analyses of the compounds prepared by Corina Molecular Networks were performed using the Molecular Operating Environment MOE 2012.10.

Results: A statistically significant inverse relationship was obtained between in silico binding energies to VEGFR1 and anti-angiogenic activity in vivo of a test-set of artemisinin derivatives (R=-0.843; p=0.035). This served as a control experiment to validate molecular docking predicting anti-angiogenc effects. Furthermore, 52 artemisinin derivatives were docked to VEGFR1 and in selected examples also to VEGFR2 and VEGFA. Higher binding affinities were calculated for receptors than for the ligand. The best binding affinities to VEGFR1 were found for an artemisinin dimer, 10-dihydroartemisinyl-2-propylpentanoate, and dihydroartemisinin α-hemisuccinate sodium salt. QSAR analyses revealed significant relationships between VEGFR1 binding energies and defined molecular descriptors of 35 artemisinins assigned to the training set (R=0.0848, p<0.0001) and 17 derivatives assigned to the test set (R=0.761, p<0.001).

Conclusion: Molecular docking and QSAR calculations can be used to identify novel artemisinin derivatives with anti-angiogenic effects.

Keywords: Angiogenesis; Artemisia annua; QSAR; artemisinin; cancer; molecular docking; quantitative structure-activity relationship calculations; vascular endothelial growth factor receptor.