Potential of natural antioxidant compound in Cymbopogon nardus as anti-cancer drug via HSP-70 inhibitor

Abstract

Citronella grass (Cymbopogon nardus) is a plant containing many metabolite compounds which prevent and treat various diseases, one of which is cancer. Antioxidant compounds found in citronella have been shown to improve the immune system by increasing cytokines. The activity of changing homeostasis generates free radicals. Free radicals causing protein damage so that Heat Shock Protein-70 (HSP70) is overexpressed. HSP70 has a role as a chaperon. Mutations in the anti-apoptotic protein HSP70 are one of the causes of cancer. This current research aims to determine the potential of compounds present in the citronella plant stem as anti-cancer through inhibition of HSP-70. The method was a bioinformatics approach, namely the in-silico method which provided a simulation of binding protein ligands to HSP-70 as inhibitor mechanism. The results of this study indicated that there was a potential for citronella compounds, namely spathulenol binding to HSP-70. Spathulenol compounds interact with Hsp70 via the positions Thr204, Gly12, Gly203, Thr14, Lys71, Asp10, Val369, Asp199, Val337, Gly338, Asp366, Gly339, Pro365, Glys201, & Glys202 with Van der Waals bonds and hydrogen bonds on Thr13. In the complex, there was one unfavorable bond formed on the O atom of the query ligand. From the results above, it can be concluded that the Spathulenol compound is predicted to act as an inhibitor of Hsp70 protein activity because it inhibits the binding site of the native ligand on Hsp70. The stability of the binding interaction produced by Spathulenol allows a response to Hsp70 inhibitor activity. By inhibiting the activity of Hsp70 inhibitors, it is possible to inhibit the formation and proliferation of cancer cells