Molecular docking studies of phytochemicals of basil against sirt2 as an anti-breast cancer

Breast cancer is one of the most prominent types of cancer found in women, reported to have second highest number of deaths after lung cancer. One of the causes reported are improper regulation of epigenetic modifications. Sirtuin2 (SIRT2, a class3 histone deacetylase) regulates many types of diseases, including breast cancer, cellular stress, survival and damage responses. Basil is known to possess anticancer properties; however, the role of its phytochemicals against different epigenetic targets is still not very clear. We have screened various phytochemicals (mostly enriched in essential oil) of basil to define their role in breast cancer using molecular docking studies. These studies were against epigenetic target SIRT2. The results helped us to find out best candidates Methyl Cinnamate and Eucalyptol having binding energies -5.98 Kcal/Mol and -6.06 Kcal/Mol respectively for binding in the active pocket of SIRT2. The results of these studies help to understand the underlying mechanism for protective effects of basil phytochemicals against breast cancer.