Isolation, In-silico Studies, and Biological Evaluation of Higenamine from Annona squamosa L. against Breast Cancer

Abstract

The efficacy of Annona squamosa L. in cancer treatment has been documented, inspiring the authors to investigate the plant further for potential novel anticancer compounds. Therefore, the current study aimed to isolate and characterize Higenamine from leaves extract of A. squamosa L. and studied for the in-vitro cancer cell line and molecular docking. The high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and thin layer chromatography (TLC) method development of A. squamosa L. leaves extract furnished Higenamine of which characterization was established by HPLC, infrared radiation (IR), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and its acute toxicity study and cytotoxic properties using MCF-7 cell lines by MTT assay were assessed. Molecular docking was done using Auto Dock Vina software to validate the anticancer activity. The extraction batches by ultrasonication and maceration methods showed good results using 80% methanol. Acute toxicity studies, after a single dose (2000 mg/kg) administration of methanolic extract don’t show clinical symptoms of toxicity and mortalities. From the extract, Higenamine was eluted and the dried fraction showed 66% of enrichment of Higenamine. The developed HPLC and TLC methods showed Higenamine (HGN) peak at 6.21 minutes band at Rf 0.61, respectively. The isolated compound was identified as Higenamine with FTIR spectroscopic analysis which revealed various characteristic band values with functional groups. HPLC-MS showed m/z at 272.1 (M+H+) corresponding to the molecular formula C16H17NO3. The IC50 value for Higenamine was 42.39 μg/mL were observed in MCF-7 breast cancer which was better than 5-Fluorouracil having 39.22 μg/mL. In-silico studies explored that higenamine showed good binding affinity to breast cancer PDBIDs and forms a stable complex. Furthermore, absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) properties of isolated compound was calculated using the Swiss ADME online tool in which higenamine was found to have a good pharmacokinetic profile as compared with 5-fluorouracil and doxorubicin. Higenamine has been isolated and identified as a potential anticancer agent. Further research can explore its effectiveness through pharmaceutical formulation and in vitro cell line studies.