Toward α-1,3/4 fucosyltransferases targeted drug discovery: In silico uncovering of promising natural inhibitors of fucosyltransferase 6

Sialyl Lewis X (sLe(x)) antigen is a fucosylated cell-surface glycan that is normally involved in cell-cell interactions. The enhanced expression of sLe(x) on cell surface glycans, which is attributed to the upregulation of fucosyltransferase 6 (FUT6), has been implicated in facilitating metastasis in human colorectal, lung, prostate, and oral cancers. The role that the upregulated FUT6 plays in the progression of tumor to malignancy, with reduced survival rates, makes it a potential target for anticancer drugs. Unfortunately, the lack of experimental structures for FUT6 has hampered the design and development of its inhibitors. In this study, we used in silico techniques to identify potential FUT6 inhibitors. We first modeled the three-dimensional structure of human FUT6 using AlphaFold. Then, we screened the natural compound libraries from the COCONUT database to sort out potential natural products (NPs) with best affinity toward the FUT6 model. As a result of these simulations, we identified three NPs for which we predicted binding affinities and interaction patterns quite similar to those we calculated for two experimentally tested FUT6 inhibitors, that is, fucose mimetic-1 and a GDP-triazole derived compound. We also performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for the FUT6 complexes with identified NPs, to investigate their stability. Analysis of the MD simulations showed that the identified NPs establish stable contacts with FUT6 under dynamics conditions. On these grounds, the three screened compounds appear as promising natural alternatives to experimentally tested FUT6 synthetic inhibitors, with expected comparable binding affinity. This envisages good prospects for future experimental validation toward FUT6 inhibition.

Automated summary

Sialyl Lewis X (sLe(x)) antigen, upregulated by fucosyltransferase 6 (FUT6), plays a crucial role in promoting metastasis in human colorectal, lung, prostate, and oral cancers. However, the lack of experimental structures for FUT6 hinders the development of its inhibitors. In this study, we employed in silico techniques to identify potential FUT6 inhibitors and found three natural compounds with comparable binding affinity to experimentally tested inhibitors. Molecular dynamics simulations further indicated the stability of these compounds, suggesting their potential as natural alternatives for FUT6 inhibition.