In silico design of small peptide-based Hsp90 inhibitor: A novel anticancer agent

Background: Breast cancer is a common disease found among women and has been a serious issue for last two decades. Although various kinds of heat shock proteins (Hsp's) have strong implications in cancer, heat shock protein 90 alpha (Hsp90 alpha) has attracted highest attention for the cause and therapy of breast cancer. It regulates approximately 200 numbers of proteins known as client proteins including large number of oncoproteins found to be upregulated in many cancer cells. Therefore, inhibition of Hsp90 alpha is a common therapeutic approach pursued in many cancers. However, Hsp90 alpha, inhibitors both natural and chemical, reported so far are plagued with problems related to toxicity, bioavailability and solubility including geldanamycin, the most common Hsp90 alpha inhibitor. Therefore, search for a suitable Hsp90 alpha inhibitor is an urgent need. Hypothesis: Here we hypothesize that Hsp organizing protein (HOP) helps in the interaction of Hsp90 alpha with Hsp70, which is the key to appropriate chaperonin function of Hsp90 alpha and therefore, inhibiting such interaction might lead to the disruption of Hsp90 alpha-client protein complex, which in turn destabilize and degrade client proteins. We further hypothesize that considering the residues involved in the reaction we can design novel peptide based Hsp90 alpha inhibitor. Experimental design: In our present in silico investigation, we hypothesized that the chaperone function of Hsp90 alpha requires the complex formation with HOP and co-chaperones Hsp70, Hsp40. We performed the docking interaction between Hsp90 alpha and HOP. Based on the key residues involved in the interaction between Hsp90 alpha and HOP, we designed ten peptides having twelve amino acids each. We docked the designed peptides with Hsp90 alpha, using docking software Hex 6.1 and the peptide with the highest binding energy value was identified. Using the online FOLDAMYLOID program, we assessed their amyloidogenic propensity. Amylodegenic properties were also considered and based on that five different peptides were again redesigned. Several modifications incorporated onto the peptide led to the design of five different peptides. Results: The peptide with the lowest amyloidogenic properties and highest binding energy for Hsp90 alpha, was the criteria laid for selection as an Hsp90 alpha-inhibitor. Its potential to bind Hsp90 alpha, and disrupt Hsp90 alpha-HOP complex was subsequently investigated using both wild as well as mutant p53 as a client protein. Conclusion: The predicted binding energy values showed that our designed novel peptide demonstrated strong binding affinity for Hsp90 alpha. Subsequently, the binding affinity of Hsp90 alpha for mutant p53 was shown to be reduced substantially indicating a strong inhibitory potential of the designed peptide PEP73 (INSAYKLKYARG) for Hsp90 alpha. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.