Oxidative functionalization of triterpenes isolated from Euphorbia resinifera latex: Semisynthesis, ADME-Tox, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics simulations

Natural triterpenes isolated from Euphorbia resinifera latex, α -Euphol and α - Euphorbol, have been subjected to structural modification using oxidative agents such as chromic anhydride (CrO 3 ) and sodium periodate in the presence of ruthenium trichloride NaIO4-(RuCl 3, 3H 2 O) to obtain new triterpene derivatives with good yield. The semi-synthesized triterpenes ( 1–9 ) and ( 10–16 ) prepared from α -Euphol and α -Euphorbol have been tested in silico to predict and evaluate their antibacterial and insecticidal properties. Among the tested compounds, three of them ( 3, 15, and 16 ) were discarded after evaluating their drug-likeness and ADME-Tox profiles. Then, a molecular docking analysis was performed to predict which one of the studied compounds could inhibit MurE (PDB ID: 1E8C) and EcR (PDB ID: 1R20) proteins involved in antibacterial and insecticidal activities, respectively. Among the docked compounds, only compounds 8 and 9 showed better stability in the MurE and EcR receptor pocket than the Amoxicillin and 20-Hydroxyecdysone used as standards. After that, molecular dynamics simulation was performed to further investigate the stability of compound 9 in the binding pocket of both targeted receptors. Eventually, the outcomes of this study show that the new triterpene derivative 9 could be used as a promising candidate to develop new insecticides and antibacterial drugs.