Evaluation of Rapanone and Nectandrin B as novel inhibitors for targeting the metastatic regulator protein BACH1 using breast cancer cell line Mcf-7

Cancer formation is defined as the unrestrained proliferation of cells due to various factors acting as a causing agent. A limited number of over-expressed transcription factors are contributed to the development of numerous types of cancer. The metastatic regulator protein BTB And CNC Homology 1 (BACH1) is Cap 'N' Collar (CNC) and it belongs to a basic region leucine zipper (bZIP) family. The presence of the least level concentration of intracellular heme BACH1 forms heterodimers with musculo aponeurotic fibrosarcoma (sMAF) proteins and inhibits or induces the target gene expression. Based on the previous studies, BACH1 plays a critical player in the conditions of senescence and oxidative stress, cycling of cell life, heme degradation pathway and cancer, especially in metastasis. Discovering new anti-cancer drugs (identification of bioactive compounds) stages finally needs to inhibit the target protein. This present study is aimed to screen and identify stability, binding affinity and analysis of pharmacokinetics of selected compounds through structural screening, ADMET, DFT and MESP. From this study, it is revealed that Rapanone and Nectandrin B have the potential to alter the degree of gene expression via binding with the BACH1 allosteric region which will further change the degree of expression of BACH1 downstream target genes involved in the regulation of cancer progression particularly in metastasis. The two plant origin compounds Rapanone and Nectandrin B might be novel candidates for developing anti-cancer drugs. The predicted compounds were further validated through in-vitro experimental approaches.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.