A molecular simulation analysis of vitamin D targets interleukin 13 (IL13) as an alternative to mometasone in asthma.

Asthma, a chronic lung disease characterized by obstruction of airway passage is characterized by inflammation and hyperresponsiveness with increase in the number of eosinophils. Interleukin-13, plays a significant role in causing inflammation during an asthmatic attack by bronchial constriction. Mometasone, a glucocorticoid has been used as the first line of administration for people affected with asthma for almost a decade. However, in several cases, people treated with mometasone have faced systemic and local side effects. To reduce these side effects, we hypothesized vitamin D that can be used as a substitute to mometasone. For this purpose, we employed the use of molecular docking and simulation studies for comparative study. The docking studies revealed the binding residues of interleukin-13 which are bound to the active site. Among all, we noticed three binding residue Leu83, His84 and Arg86 common for both mometasone and vitamin D. Also, the binding energies share a significant similarity between them. The docked complexes of mometasone and vitamin D with interleukin-13 were evaluated with molecular dynamics simulation. Consistently, the MD analysis uncovered the interesting note on conformational adaptation between the complexes as well as that vitamin D has the complementary binding efficiency to interleukin-13 as compared to mometasone. The substitution of vitamin D might provide a promising gateway to reduce the side effects caused by mometasone and also reduce the cost for treatment of asthma patients.