Drug Design, Development and Therapy (Jan 2016)

Determination of the binding mode for anti-inflammatory natural product xanthohumol with myeloid differentiation protein 2

  • Fu W,
  • Chen L,
  • Wang Z,
  • Zhao C,
  • Chen G,
  • Liu X,
  • Dai Y,
  • Cai Y,
  • Li C,
  • Zhou J,
  • Liang G

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2016, no. Issue 1
pp. 455 – 463

Abstract

Read online

Weitao Fu,1,* Lingfeng Chen,1,* Zhe Wang,1 Chengwei Zhao,1 Gaozhi Chen,1 Xing Liu,1 Yuanrong Dai,2 Yuepiao Cai,1 Chenglong Li,1,3 Jianmin Zhou,1 Guang Liang1 1Chemical Biology Research Center, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2Department of Respiratory Medicine, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China; 3Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: It is recognized that myeloid differentiation protein 2 (MD-2), a coreceptor of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) for innate immunity, plays an essential role in activation of the lipopolysaccharide signaling pathway. MD-2 is known as a neoteric and suitable therapeutical target. Therefore, there is great interest in the development of a potent MD-2 inhibitor for anti-inflammatory therapeutics. Several studies have reported that xanthohumol (XN), an anti-inflammatory natural product from hops and beer, can block the TLR4 signaling by binding to MD-2 directly. However, the interaction between MD-2 and XN remains unknown. Herein, our work aims at characterizing interactions between MD-2 and XN. Using a combination of experimental and theoretical modeling analysis, we found that XN can embed into the hydrophobic pocket of MD-2 and form two stable hydrogen bonds with residues ARG-90 and TYR-102 of MD-2. Moreover, we confirmed that ARG-90 and TYR-102 were two necessary residues during the recognition process of XN binding to MD-2. Results from this study identified the atomic interactions between the MD-2 and XN, which will contribute to future structural design of novel MD-2-targeting molecules for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Keywords: myeloid differentiation 2, xanthohumol, binding mode, inflammation, molecular dynamics simulation 

Keywords