The in Silico Approach to Identify a Unique Plant-Derived Inhibitor Against E6 and E7 Oncogenic Proteins of High-Risk Human Papillomavirus 16 and 18

Globally, the human papillomavirus (HPV) remains the foremost cause of cancer mortality among women. There is a need to identify natural anti-cancerous compounds that can fight against life-threatening infections by HPV. Various kinds of natural plant-originated compounds have been used in the traditional system of medicine for cancer therapy. Different studies have reported the effective inhibition of HPV infection enacted by certain natural compounds. Out of all the different HPV types, HPV-16 and 18 are the ones mainly associated with causing cervical cancer; furthermore, the E6 and E7 oncoproteins of these two high-risk HPV types typically interact with tumor protein 53 (p53) and retinoblastoma tumor suppressor proteins (pRb) of human host which consequent to cancer formation. The goal of this study is to identify unique plant-originated compounds to utilize in order to combat the high-risk human papillomavirus oncoproteins using docking measures. Twelve natural compounds jaceosidin, withaferin A, curcumin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), artemisinin, gingerol, ursolic acid, ferulic acid, berberin, silymarin, resveratrol, and indol-3-carbinol were docked against E6 and E7 oncoproteins of high-risk HPV types 16 and 18 using a protein-ligand docking software called AutoDock4.2. Out of these 12 natural compounds, withaferin A was found to inhibit all four oncoproteins with minimum binding energy. These in silico findings indicate that withaferin A may be used as a common drug for cervical cancer caused by high-risk HPV types, perhaps by restoring the normal functions of tumor suppressor proteins.