In silico prediction and interaction of resveratrol on methyl-CpG binding proteins by molecular docking and MD simulations study

Abstract

Resveratrol enhances the BRCA1 gene expression and the MBD family of proteins bind to the promoter region of the BRCA1 gene. However, the molecular interaction is not yet reported. Here we have analyzed the binding affinity of resveratrol with MBD proteins. Our results suggest that resveratrol binds to the MBD proteins with higher binding affinity toward MeCP2 protein (ΔG = −6.5) by sharing four hydrogen bonds as predicted by molecular docking studies. Further, the molecular dynamics simulations outcomes showed that the backbones of all three protein–ligand complexes are stabilized after the period of 75 ns, constantly fluctuating around the deviations of 0.4 Å, 0.5 Å and 0.7 Å for MBD1, MBD2 and MeCP2, respectively. The inter-molecular hydrogen bonding trajectory analysis for protein–ligand complexes also support the strong binding between MeCP2–resveratrol complex. Further, binding free energy calculations showed binding energy of −94.764 kJ mol⁻¹, −53.826 kJ mol⁻¹ and −36.735 kJ mol⁻¹ for MeCP2–resveratrol, MBD2–resveratrol and MBD1–resveratrol complexes, respectively, which also supported our docking results. Our study also highlighted that the MBD family of proteins forms a binding interaction with other signaling proteins that are involved in various cancer initiation pathways.