Screening Streptomyces secondary metabolites against non-small cell lung cancer using computational approaches

Secondary metabolites from bacterial sources are being seen as alternatives to identify new medicines for various disease conditions. Streptomyces is known to be a warehouse of secondary metabolites and is a promising source to be looked for the discovery and development of new anti-tumorigenic agents. Such identifications could alleviate the issue of lung cancer that takes over 2 million lives a year. In the current study, we have screened secondary metabolites from Streptomyces for their potential to act as drugs for non-small cell lung cancer. The metabolites were identified for their ability to inhibit RET protein. Gene fusion partners cause alteration to the RET protein that causes the cancer condition. The metabolites identified were based on docking, pharmacokinetics, toxicity and pass prediction. 16 metabolites from 13 different species of Streptomyces showed binding affinity to the target protein. Among the metabolites, melanin was the one that had strongest evident to act as a drug candidate for non-small cell lung cancer therapeutics.