In silico molecular docking studies of 2, 4 and 2, 6-di-tert-butylphenol against NAGK and SPP1 proteins to recuperate rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that primarily affects the synovial joints. It is connected to progressive disability, early death and socioeconomic burdens. So, there is an urgent need to develop novel drugs that effectively treat patients at each stage of disease progression. N-acetylglucosamine kinase (NAGK) and secreted phosphoprotein 1(SPP1) are two attractive drug targets for RA. NAGK protein converts endogenous N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) into GlcNAc 6-phosphate. GlcNAc has suppressive effects on experimental RA in mouse models. SPP1 stimulates the synthesis of a key proinflammatory cytokine implicated in the pathogenesis of RA. In order to design new drug candidates, crystal structure of human NAGK (PDB Id: 2CH5) was retrieved from the protein data bank. Amino acid sequence of SPP1 (Uniprot Id: P10451) was retrieved from uniprot database and modeled by the Phyre2 server. Computed SPP1 model energy was minimized using the YASARA energy minimization server and validated by the Ramachandran plot and the ProSA-web error-detection tool. 2, 4-Di-tert-butylphenol and 2, 6-Di-Tert-butylphenol are known compound isolates from bark extract of Schleichera oleosa having anti-arthritic and anti-inflammatory activities as accessed by PASS online server. These compounds were docked against active site of NAGK and SPP1 proteins using MTiAutoDock server. The binding affinity of these compounds against NAGK and SPP1 proteins ranges from -6.12 to -7.17 kcal/mol. The findings of this study will open the way for the development of herbal remedies for rheumatoid arthritis based on the Schleichera oleosa plant, potentially leading to the development of novel drugs.