Mansouri Pardis, Mansouri Pegah, Najafipour Sohrab, Kouhpayeh Seyed Amin, Farjadfar Akbar, Behmard Esmaeil
Student Research Committee, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran.
Department of Medical Biotechnology, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran.
Sci Rep. 2025 May 3;15(1):15542. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-98771-w.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic gastrointestinal condition that encompasses ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). Targeting both inflammation and the epithelial barrier simultaneously can significantly improve symptom management in IBD, as a promising strategy. In this study, we focused on addressing both inflammation and the epithelial barrier. Until now, each therapeutic target including phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) and prolyl hydroxylase domain enzymes 1 and 2 (PHD1/2) have been studied separately. PDE4 plays a key role in the inflammatory process by converting cyclic AMP (cAMP) to AMP and its inhibition can suppress the production of inflammatory cytokines. Research has shown that inhibiting PHD1 and PHD2 increases levels of hypoxia-inducible factor-alpha (HIF-α), which in turn strengthens the epithelial barrier by promoting the expression of protective factors such as mucins and β-defensins. Through virtual screening, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics simulations, we identified five compounds-Cassiamin C, Ginkgetin, Hinokiflavone, Sciadopitysin, and Sojagol-as promising new drug candidates for IBD treatment. All compounds demonstrated superior free binding energy for the three targets compared to reference ligands, except Sojagol concerning PDE4B. Among these compounds, Ginkgetin was the best compound with potential ability of targeting multiple drug target proteins. Future experimental studies are warranted to validate these findings.
炎症性肠病(IBD)是一种慢性胃肠道疾病,包括溃疡性结肠炎(UC)和克罗恩病(CD)。同时针对炎症和上皮屏障是一种很有前景的策略,可显著改善IBD的症状管理。在本研究中,我们专注于解决炎症和上皮屏障这两个问题。到目前为止,包括磷酸二酯酶4(PDE4)以及脯氨酰羟化酶结构域酶1和2(PHD1/2)在内的每个治疗靶点都是单独研究的。PDE4通过将环磷酸腺苷(cAMP)转化为AMP在炎症过程中起关键作用,抑制它可以抑制炎性细胞因子的产生。研究表明,抑制PHD1和PHD2可增加缺氧诱导因子-α(HIF-α)的水平,进而通过促进黏蛋白和β-防御素等保护因子的表达来强化上皮屏障。通过虚拟筛选、分子对接和分子动力学模拟,我们确定了五种化合物——决明胺C、银杏黄素、扁柏黄酮、日本金松双黄酮和大豆皂醇——作为治疗IBD有前景的新药候选物。与参考配体相比,所有化合物对这三个靶点均表现出更高的自由结合能,但大豆皂醇针对PDE4B的情况除外。在这些化合物中,银杏黄素是靶向多种药物靶蛋白潜力最佳的化合物。未来有必要进行实验研究来验证这些发现。