In silico Study of Some Natural Anthraquinones on Matrix Metalloproteinase Inhibition

Background and objectives: Matrix metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13) is a proteolytic enzyme playing an important role in the activation of the MMP cascade, which seems to be vital in both bone metabolism and homeostasis. However, the up-regulation of MMP-13 is involved in developing several human disorders such as aggressive tumors, tooth decay, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, skin ageing, and Alzheimer's disease. We performed a molecular docking analysis to discover the potential MMP-13 inhibitors in a total of 21 anthraquinone derivatives. Methods: The binding affinity of the tested compounds to the MMP-13 catalytic site was estimated by the Autodock 4.0 software. Moreover, the stability of the docked pose of the top-ranked compounds were examined using molecular dynamics simulations. Results: Pulmatin, sennidin A, emodin-8-glucoside, emodin, rhodoptilometrin, chrysophanol, knipholone, sennidin B, aloe emodin 8-glucoside, and aloe-emodin demonstrated considerable binding affinity to the MMP-13 active site. However, the molecular dynamics simulations showed that the docked poses of sennidin A and sennidin B were not considerably stable. Conclusion: The present study suggested that pulmatin, emodin-8-glucoside, emodin, rhodoptilometrin, chrysophanol, knipholone, aloe emodin 8-glucoside, and aloe-emodin may be considered as drug candidates for therapeutic applications in many human diseases. However, the validation of this finding is needed in the future.