Investigating the Conformational Structure and Potential Site Interactions of SOD Inhibitors on Ec-SOD in Marine Mud Crab Scylla serrata: A Molecular Modeling Approach

Superoxide dismutases (SODs) act as a first line of the enzymatic antioxidant defense system to control cellular superoxide anion toxicity. Previously, several inhibitors have been widely identified and catalogued for inhibition of SOD activity; however, still the information about the mechanism of interaction and points toward the inhibitor interactions in structures of SODs in general and in extracellular (Ec)-SOD in particular is still in naive. In the present research, we present an insight to elucidate the molecular basis of interactions of SOD inhibitors with Ec-SOD in mud crab Scylla serrata using molecular modeling and docking approaches. Different inhibitors of SOD such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), potassium cyanide, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), b-mercaptoethanol and dithiocarbamate were screened to understand the potential sites that may act as sites for cleavage or blocking in the protein. SOD-SDS and SOD-H2O2 complex interactions indicate residues Pro72 and Asp102 of the predicted crab Ec-SOD as common targets. The GOLD result indicates that Pro72, Asp102 and Thr103 are commonly acting as the site of interaction in Ec-SOD of S. serrata with SOD inhibitors. For the first time, the results of this study provide an insight into the structural properties of Ec-SOD of S. serrata and define the possible involvements between the amino acids present in its active sites, i.e., in the regions from 70 to 84 and from 101 to 103 and different inhibitors.