Reverse Docking Approach Reveals the Negative Effect of Caffeine Toxicity on Glutamate GluR2 Receptor

Abstract

In the past decade, the consumption of caffeine has increased exponentially throughout the world. Caffeine is now not only limits to coffee but is present in several desserts and other beverages as well. Caffeine is a psychostimulant that helps in improving your performance but its excessive consumption can also affect the cognitive functions of the Central Nervous System (CNS) negatively. The present research is an attempt to understand the mechanism of caffeine action in blocking central nervous system receptors thereby affecting brain function adversely. The reverse docking approach of computational biology has been implied to visualize the interaction of several neurotransmitter receptors with caffeine. Reverse molecular docking is an approach for determining the effect of a ligand on a range of receptors. The binding energy of the receptors with caffeine is considered for determining the best receptor-ligand complex. A list of 7 different neurotransmitters was identified through a literature study and taken into consideration in the current research. The molecular interaction of the human neuro-receptors was seen with caffeine using AutoDock4.0 to study the impact of caffeine on several biological processes of the human brain. The molecular docking approach identifies glutamate gluR2 receptor to be adversely affected by caffeine toxicity thereby affecting the neurotransmission process in the human nervous system.