In Silico Analysis of HPV E6 as Drug Target with Natural Antioxidants

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infecting mucosal and cutaneous epithelia and induce cellular proliferation are small, non-enveloped, epitheliotropic, double-stranded DNA viruses. HPV is infectious to humans through sexual contact without showing any physical symptoms. The symptoms of HPV infection comprise warts on the genitals surrounding skin. Infection of HPV accounts to 70% of cervical cancer including cancers of the anus, vulva, vagina, penis and oropharynx. HPV types contain the genomes comprising eight open reading frames (ORFs) transcribed from a single DNA strand; ORF comprises three functional parts; viral replication encoded by the early (E) region comprising E1-E7 proteins; virion assembly encoded by the late (L) region comprising the L1-L2 proteins; and the replication and transcription of viral DNA is encoded by a long control region (LCR) is a non-coding part possessing the cis-elements. The HPV is encoded by three oncoproteins of which E6 protein was identified as an influential oncogene expressed product and is functionally related to the series of events resulting in the malignant conversion of virally infected cells. To understand the route of malignancy in humans by which E6 protein of HPV is resulting, much research is focused on identifying the cellular proteins with which E6 interacts. This study is focused on identifying the best ligands such as carrageenan, curcumin and papain available in natural sources such as fruits and vegetables to target HPV E6 Protein B-chain as drug target against antioxidants in cancerous individuals. This was carried out with the three-dimensional structures of ligands from pubchem and protein from protein data bank and the docking was performed by Autodock Vina. Minimal energy was noticed upon docking with carrageenan and it was the best over the other two selected ligands curcumin and papain.