Integrating Blood Biomarkers and Marine Brown Algae-Derived Inhibitors in Parkinson's Disease: A Multi-scale Approach from Interactomics to Quantum Mechanics.

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) involves alpha-synuclein accumulation according to Braak's pattern, with diverse clinical progressions that complicate diagnosis and treatment. We aimed to correlate Braak's pattern with rapid progressive PD to identify blood-based biomarkers and therapeutic targets exploiting brown algae-derived bioactives for potential treatment. We implemented a systematic workflow of transcriptomic profiling, co-expression networks, cluster profiling, transcriptional regulator identification, molecular docking, quantum calculations, and dynamic simulations. The transcriptomic analyses exhibited highly expressed genes at each Braak's stage and in rapidly progressive PD. Co-expression networks for Braak's stages were built, and the top five clusters from each stage displayed significant overlap with differentially expressed genes in rapidly progressive PD, indicating shared biomarkers between the blood and the PD brain. Further investigation showed, NF-kappa-B p105 as the master transcriptional regulator of these biomarkers. Molecular docking screened phlorethopentafuhalol-A from brown algae, exhibiting a superior inhibitory effect with p105 (- 7.51kcal/mol) by outperforming PD drugs and anti-inflammatory compounds (- 5.73 to - 4.38kcal/mol). Quantum mechanics and molecular mechanics (QM/MM) calculations and dynamic simulations have confirmed the interactive stability of phlorethopentafuhalol-A with p105. Overall, our combined computational study shows that phlorethopentafuhalol-A derived from brown algae, may have healing properties that could help treat PD.