Discovery of novel human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 inhibitors by structure-based virtual screening

Background: Human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) is a trans-membrane receptor like protein, and aberrant signaling of HER2 is implicated in many human cancers, such as ovarian cancer, gastric cancer, and prostate cancer, most notably breast cancer. Moreover, it has been in the spotlight in the recent years as a promising new target for therapy of breast cancer. Objective: Since virtual screening has become an integral part of the drug discovery process, it is of great significant to identify novel HER2 inhibitors by structure-based virtual screening. Materials and Methods: In this study, we carried out a series of elegant bioinformatics approaches, such as virtual screening and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to identify HER2 inhibitors from Food and Drug Administration-approved small molecule drug as potential “new use” drugs. Results: Molecular docking identified top 10 potential drugs which showed spectrum affinity to HER2. Moreover, MD simulations suggested that ZINC08214629 (Nonoxynol-9) and ZINC03830276 (Benzonatate) might exert potential inhibitory effects against HER2-targeted anti-breast cancer therapeutics. Conclusion: Together, our findings may provide successful application of virtual screening studies in the lead discovery process, and suggest that our discovered small molecules could be effective HER2 inhibitor candidates for further study.