Screening and Identification of Potential iNOS Inhibitors to Curtail Cervical Cancer Progression: An in-Silico Drug Repurposing Approach

Cervical cancer is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide and remains the main reason of mortality amongst women of reproductive age in developing countries. Nitric oxide is involved in several physiological functions inclusive of inflammatory and immune responses. However, the function of NO in tumor biology is debatable. The inducibleNOS (iNOS/NOS2) isoform is the oneresponsible to maintain the levels of NO and it exhibits pleotropic effects in various cancer with concentration-dependent pro- and anti-tumor effects.NOS2 triggers angiogenesis and endothelial cell migration in tumors by regulating the levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). In drug discovery, drug repurposing involves investigations of approved drug candidates to treat various other diseases. In this study, we used FDA-approved anti-cancer drugs and small molecules to target iNOS and identify a potential selective iNOS inhibitor. The structures of ligands were geometrically optimized, and energy minimized using Hyperchem software. Molecular docking was performed using Molegro virtual docker and ligands were selected based on MolDock score,Rerank score, and H-bonding energy. In the study showed 4 compounds, Degarelix, Goserelin, Triptorelin pamoate, and venetoclax demonstrated excellent binding affinity to NOS2 protein. These compounds exhibited the lowest MolDock score, Rerank score, with better H-bonding energy to NOS2. Based on the results theses ligands project to be promising potential NOS2 inhibitors to curtail cervical cancer progression