Isobonducellin phytocompound from Artemisia annua L. plant exhibits anti-colorectal cancer activity via AKT1 regulation: an in-silico study

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading contributors to cancer related mortality worldwide highlighting the need for novel therapeutic agents. This study investigated the potential anti-colorectal cancer activity of phytochemicals from Artemisia annua L. plant using an integrated in silico approaches. Gene expression analysis, ADMET screening, network pharmacology, molecular docking, density functional theory (DFT), molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, and post-simulation trajectory analyses were employed to identify potential therapeutic compounds and molecular targets. Among the identified phytochemicals, toxicity screening identified 13 predicted non-toxic compounds and molecular docking results revealed that cirsilineol (−8.3 kcal/mol), 3,5-dihydroxy-6,7,3′,4′-tetramethoxyflavone (−7.9 kcal/mol), and isobonducellin (−7.9 kcal/mol) exhibited strong binding affinity toward AKT1 protein than control drug 5fu (-5 kcal/mol) and capivasertib (−7.6 kcal/mol). Additionally, ADME analysis confirmed favorable drug likeness profiles of these active compounds. The 200ns molecular dynamics simulation analysis revealed that the isobonducellin- AKT1 complex possessed stable conformation with good RMSD (2.253 ± 0.243 Å), RMSF (1.184 ± 0.852 Å), Rg (4.0 ± 0.064 Å), SASA (45.93 ± 36.75 Å 2 ), and hydrogen bond (84.649 ± 5.306), compared to other ligands and control capivasertib. DFT, PCA, DCCM and MM-GBSA binding free energy analysis further supported isobonducellin (CID: 10423880) as a strong AKT1 -targeting drug candidate. Although MM-GBSA suggested slightly better binding for another ligand, isobonducellin was selected based on its overall superior dynamic stability and consistent interaction profile across simulations. Our results proposed that isobonducellin from Artemisia annua L. shows potential as a colorectal cancer therapeutic by modulating multiple signaling pathways and targeting AKT1 protein. However, additional experimental studies such as cancer cell-line assays and animal-model testing are required to validate this study.