Molecular Docking Studies of Estrone-Coumarin Derivatives as Aromatase and 17<i>β</i>-HSD1 Inhibitors Related to Hormone Receptor Positive (HR+) Breast Cancer

Abstract

Hormone Receptor positive (HR+) breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women. New strategies in the treatments have targeted the estrogen biosynthesis pathways including the inhibition of the aromatase and 17β-HSD1 enzymes. The present work, describes the study of a new family of 9 hybrid compounds derived from estrone attached to a coumarin fragment, linked through different lengths of hydrocarbon chains. The activity of these compounds was evaluated by molecular docking with two relevant enzymes in breast cancer (HR+). It has been proposed nine compounds as 17β-HSD1 inhibitors and six as aromatase inhibitors. We found important interactions with key amino acids at the orthosteric site of each enzyme and their score values compared to the crystallographic ligand. The in silico analysis showed good score values in the proposed compounds, where the steroidal portion presented important interactions with Met374 and Tyr155 in aromatase and in 17β-HSD1 respectively. Highlighting Compounds 2, 5 and 8 with an aromatic ring at the C4 position of the coumarin moiety, which favored arene-H type interactions essential for protein-ligand recognition. In addition, the results related to the 17β-HSD1 enzyme demonstrated how the length of the linker influences the interaction; the best score was found for derivative 8 with a chain of 8 methylenes.