Anti-Malignant Property of Curcin through Inhibition of Tyrosine Kinase as evidenced by in-silico study

Abstract

Among wide variety of plants only few species are able to produce milky fluid called latex. This contains a complex mixture of plant proteins like lectins, chitinases, proteinases etc. which exhibit a specific biochemical property. Jatropha curcas, a perennial plant widely found in tropical and sub tropical region is well known for its great capacity of producing latex. The plant mainly grown
for biodiesel production has potential medical applications for a variety of human diseases. The latex of Jatropha contains alkaloids and lectins like Curcin, a protein which is proposed to exhibit antitumor properties. This protein has a sequence similarity with RIP family of proteins which are known for their anti cancerous nature. Preliminary studies suggested the use of Curcin as a part of
antitumor treatment. Changing lifestyle and ageing in the developing world has resulted in rising number of individuals suffering from cancer. In order to assist further development in cancer related drug discovery, naturopathy and to widen the scope of research an in-silico study was performed in search for potential targets of Curcin which can be exploited to treat cancer.
Homology modeling was done to predict the structure of Curcin molecule and protein-protein docking operation was carried out using EGFR and mTOR as target receptors. Interestingly the results went in the favor of Curcin efficiently proving its anti malignant property. However, the predicted model has to go for clinical trials to establish its effectiveness as an inhibitor of tumors
caused by EGFR over expression.