IN SILICO EVALUATION ON THE INTERACTION BETWEEN KETONE BODIES AND OBESITY-ASSOCIATED PROTEINS

Abstract

Obesity is an upsurge in body fat and is associated with a number of cardiovascular and metabolic conditions, including type-2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and several malignancies. In contrast to other clinical trials, nutritional intervention studies primarily emphasized dietary fat reduction over the long term. The ketogenic diet, which is high in fat and protein and very low in carbohydrates, has become one of the most researched methods for weight loss in recent years. It has also recently gained recognition as a metabolic therapy for its efficacious methods in the prevention and treatment of cancer, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and other illnesses. This study was carried out to investigate the interaction of ketogenic diet end products in vivo, the ketone bodies acetoacetate, acetone and beta-hydroxybutyrate on selected obesity related proteins including ghrelin, leptin, Fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) protein (PDB id: 3LFM), catalase, superoxide dismutase and beta-hydroxylmethylgluatarate Co A reductase. In silico docking simulations of the proteins and ligands was done using high computing tools and soft wares. The results revealed varied docking scores based on interactions between the proteins and ligands. The standard drugs and ketone bodies exhibited good docking scores for all the proteins docked, although the standard drugs had slightly higher scores in most cases except for FTO, for which the ketone bodies had higher docking scores. This implies the FTO-ketone bodies complex might activate the inhibition of fatty acid synthesis leading to reduction in stored fat. This study concludes that ketone bodies obtained from ketogenic diets may serve as an adjuvant therapy in the management of obesity with reduced risk of toxicity compared with conventional therapy.