Identification of small molecule inhibitors against Lin28/let-7 to suppress tumor progression and its alleviation role in LIN28-dependent glucose metabolism

The reciprocal suppression of an RNA-binding protein LIN28 (human abnormal cell lineage 28) and miRNA Let-7 (Lethal 7) is considered to have a prime role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Though targeting this inhibition interaction is effective for therapeutics, it causes other unfavorable effects on glucose metabolism and increased insulin resistance. Hence, this study aims to identify small molecules targeting Lin28/let-7 interaction along with additional potency to improve insulin sensitivity. Of 22,14,996 small molecules screened by high throughput virtual screening, 6 molecules, namely 41354, 1558, 12437, 23837, 15710, and 8319 were able to block the LIN28 interaction with let-7 and increase the insulin sensitivity via interacting with PPARγ (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors γ). MM-GBSA (Molecular Mechanics-Generalized Born Surface Area) analysis is used to re-score the binding affinity of docked complexes. Upon further analysis, it is also seen that these molecules have superior ADME (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion) properties and form stable complexes with the targets for a significant period in a biologically simulated environment (Molecular Dynamics simulation) for 100 ns. From our results, we hypothesize that these identified 6 small molecules can be potential candidates for HCC treatment and the glucose metabolic disorder caused by the HCC treatment.