Exploring the potential of fluoro-flavonoid derivatives as anti-lung cancer agents: DFT, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics techniques

The present investigation utilized in silico methodologies to explore the diverse pharmacological activities, toxicity profiles, and chemical reactivity of a series of fluoro-flavonoid compounds (1-14), which are secondary metabolites of plants known for their broad range of biological effects. A comprehensive strategy is utilized, incorporating methods such as prediction of activity spectra for substances (PASS) prediction, absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) assessments, and density functional theory (B3LYP) calculations using three basis sets: 6-31G(d,p), 6-311G(d,p), and 6-311++G(d,p). Furthermore, the study employed molecular docking technique to identify target proteins, including HER2 (7JXH), EGFR (4UV7), FPPS (1YQ7), HPGDS (1V40), DCK (1P60), and KEAP1 on Nrf2 (1X2J), for the investigated compounds, with cianidanol and genistein serving as reference drugs for the docking process. The investigated fluoro-flavonoid compounds exhibited significantly greater binding affinities (ranging from -8.3 to -10.6 kcal mol(-1)) toward HER2, HPGDS, and KEAP1 compared to the reference drugs, cianidanol and genistein, which displayed binding affinities ranging from -8.4 to -9.4 kcal mol(-1). Furthermore, molecular dynamics simulations were conducted to assess the stability of the protein-ligand interaction, using the root-mean-square deviation (RMSD), root-mean-square fluctuation (RMSF), Radius of gyration (Rg) parameters and principle component analysis (PCA). Among the tested fluoro-flavonoid analogs, analog 11 showed a RMSD value of .15 nm with the HER2 protein target, indicating a stable interaction. Based on in silico results, it appears that the fluoro-flavonoid compound 11 has the potential to serve as a targeted anti-lung cancer drug. However, additional in vivo and in vitro studies are necessary to confirm this hypothesis.