Comparative in silico analyses of Cannabis sativa, Prunella vulgaris and Withania somnifera compounds elucidating the medicinal properties against rheumatoid arthritis

From last decade, there has been progressive improvement in computational drug designing. Several diseases are being cured from different plant extracts and products. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most shared disease among auto-inflammatory diseases. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha is associated with RA pathway and has adverse effects. Extensive literature review showed that plant species under study (Cannabis sativa, Prunella vulgaris and Withania somnifera) possess anti-inflammatory, anti-arthritic and anti-rheumatic properties. 13 anti-inflammatory compounds were characterized and filtered out from medicinal plant species and analyzed for RA by targeting TNF-alpha through in silico analyses. By using ligand based pharmacophore generation approach and virtual screening against natural products libraries we retrieved twenty unique molecules that displayed utmost binding affinity, least binding energies and effective drug properties. The docking analyses revealed that Ala-22, Glu-23, Ser-65, Gln-67, Tyr-141, Leu-142, Asp-143, Phe-144 and Ala-145 were critical interacting residues for receptor-ligand interactions. It is proposed that the RA patients should use reported compounds for the prescription of RA by targeting TNF-alpha. This report is opening new dimensions for designing innovative therapeutic targets to cure RA. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.