Molecular Modeling and Drug Discovery of Potential Inhibitors for Anticancer Target Gene Melk (maternal Embryonic Leucine Zipper Kinase)

Maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase (MELK), a member of the AMP serine/threonine kinase family, exhibits multiple features consistent with the potential utility of this gene as an anticancer target. Reports show that MELK functions as a cancer-specific protein kinase, and that down-regulation of MELK results in growth suppression of breast cancer cells. There are many inhibitors which bind to kinases and are in clinical trials too. In our study we have taken a library of different inhibitors and docked those using GLIDE Induced Fit. From docking result we can conclude that Syk inhibitor II, Rho kinase inhibitor IV, p38 MAP Kinase Inhibitor III, HA 1004, Dihydrochloride and IKK -2 inhibitor VI have good binding affinity towards MELK and may have anticancer activity.