In silico molecular docking of cyclooxygenase (COX-2), ADME-toxicity and in vitro evaluation of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of marine macro algae.

The marine ecosystem harbors unique and diverse bioactive compounds that can offer a vast repertoire of molecules with therapeutic properties. In the present study, four different species of red marine seaweeds were analyzed for its phytoconstituents and the potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of the methanolic extracts were screened and determined. The results revealed that, among the 4 samples, G. corticata, scored a good antioxidant potential by DPPH (67.61 ± 1.23%, IC(50) = 577.7 µg) and metal chelation assay (29.40 ± 0.32%, IC(50) = 1684 µg). The anti-inflammatory analysis has shown that, H. dialata was found to exhibit maximum inhibition against the albumin denaturation (83.50 ± 0.24%), whereas G. corticata was observed to measure a maximum inhibition in heat-induced hemolysis (60.40 ± 0.46%) and proteinase inhibition assay (83.30 ± 0.18%). An extensive literature survey was carried out for the bioactive compounds in G.corticata; it was examined for drug likeliness by ADME analysis and toxicological parameters. Further, the best selected bioactive compounds were subjected to in silico molecular docking with pro-inflammatory target, cyclooxygenase (COX-2). Hexadecanal and Neophytadiene were reported to obtain the highest binding affinity (-5.3) for COX-2 enzyme. Hence, in silico molecular docking studies had shown that G. corticata was found to possess potential anti-inflammatory activity that can prevent conversion of arachidonic acid to prostaglandins by inhibiting COX-2. In addition, molecular dynamic simulation studies have shown the stability of Hexadecanal-6 COX complex. To conclude, the outcomes of the present study may shed light on the understanding of the usage of bioactive compounds for therapeutic purpose.