Identification of novel small molecule inhibitors targeting multiple methyltransferase like proteins against hepatocellular carcinoma.

ABSTRACT: The development of more efficient and durable multi-targeted therapeutic drug against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has recently been of growing interest to tackle chemoresistance. Several studies indicate that increased expression of methyltransferase-like (METTL) proteins, including METTL1, METTL3, METTL6, METTL16, and METTL18, are associated with the progression of HCC malignancy, making them potential biomarkers. Here, using a series of computer-aided drug design (CADD) approaches, we identified two first-in-class highly potent catalytic multi-target inhibitors (ZINC70666503 and ZINC13000658 with 87% and 82% predicted drug scores, respectively) of these five methyltransferase-like proteins. The molecular dynamics study supported their conformational stability with these METTL proteins

SUBMITTER: Morshed MN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12474949 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature