Inhibition of the NEMO/IKKβ association complex formation, a novel mechanism associated with the NF-κB activation suppression by Withania somnifera's key metabolite withaferin A

Background: Nuclear Factor kappa B (NF-kappa B) is a transcription factor involved in the regulation of cell signaling responses and is a key regulator of cellular processes involved in the immune response, differentiation, cell proliferation, and apoptosis. The constitutive activation of NF-kappa B contributes to multiple cellular outcomes and pathophysiological conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, AIDS and cancer. Thus there lies a huge therapeutic potential beneath inhibition of NF-kappa B signalling pathway for reducing these chronic ailments. Withania somnifera, a reputed herb in ayurvedic medicine, comprises a large number of steroidal lactones known as withanolides which show plethora of pharmacological activities like anti-inflammatory, antitumor, antibacterial, antioxidant, anticonvulsive, and immunosuppressive. Though a few studies have been reported depicting the effect of WA (withaferin A) on suppression of NF-kappa B activation, the mechanism behind this is still eluding the researchers. The study conducted here is an attempt to explore NF-kappa B signalling pathway modulating capability of Withania somnifera's major constituent WA and to elucidate its possible mode of action using molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations studies. Results: Formation of active IKK (I kappa B kinase) complex comprising NEMO (NF-kappa B Essential Modulator) and IKK beta subunits is one of the essential steps for NF-kappa B signalling pathway, non-assembly of which can lead to prevention of the above mentioned vulnerable disorders. As observed from our semi-flexible docking analysis, WA forms strong intermolecular interactions with the NEMO chains thus building steric as well as thermodynamic barriers to the incoming IKK beta subunits, which in turn pave way to naive complex formation capability of NEMO with IKK beta. Docking of WA into active NEMO/IKK beta complex using flexible docking in which key residues of the complex were kept flexible also suggest the disruption of the active complex. Thus the molecular docking analysis of WA into NEMO and active NEMO/IKK beta complex conducted in this study provides significant evidence in support of the proposed mechanism of NF-kappa B activation suppression by inhibition or disruption of active NEMO/IKK beta complex formation being accounted by non-assembly of the catalytically active NEMO/IKK beta complex. Results from the molecular dynamics simulations in water show that the trajectories of the native protein and the protein complexed with WA are stable over a considerably long time period of 2.6 ns. Conclusions: NF-kappa B is one of the most attractive topics in current biological, biochemical, and pharmacological research, and in the recent years the number of studies focusing on its inhibition/regulation has increased