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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pharmacol.

Sec. Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery

This article is part of the Research TopicExploring Untapped Potential: Innovations in Drug RepurposingView all 23 articles

hnRNP A2B1 as a Promising Therapeutic Target for Radiomodulatory Drug Development: Evidence from Computational and Experimental Studies

Provisionally accepted
N LubinetsN Lubinets1I S TonkyyI S Tonkyy1V. A. SazonovaV. A. Sazonova1K. DuttaK. Dutta1A. E. PutintsevaA. E. Putintseva1O. O. VolkovaO. O. Volkova1Ekaterina V. SkorbEkaterina V. Skorb1P. ZunP. Zun1A. RuzovA. Ruzov2V. Yu. KravtsovV. Yu. Kravtsov3*Sergey ShityakovSergey Shityakov3*
  • 1Nacional'nyj issledovatel'skij universitet ITMO, Saint Petersburg, Russia
  • 2FGU Federal'nyj issledovatel'skij centr Fundamental'nye osnovy biotehnologii Rossijskoj akademii nauk, Moscow, Russia
  • 3ITMO University, Saint Petersburg, Russia

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Radiation modulation is critical due to the growing risks of radiation exposure in medical, occupational, and environmental settings. This study explored the potential of heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs), particularly hnRNP A2B1, as therapeutic targets for radiomodulatory drugs. In vitro experiments on human endothelial cells exposed to various X-ray doses revealed a dose-dependent increase in hnRNP A2B1 expression, with the histochemical score increasing significantly from 105 to 280 at 8.0 Gy. Using in silico molecular docking, 33 radiomodulatory agents were evaluated for their binding affinities with hnRNP A2B1. Notable ligands, such as hesperidin and psoralidin, demonstrated strong binding affinities (ΔGtot values: - Protein-ligand Complex 17.2 and -17.9 kcal·mol⁻¹, respectively). Finally, molecular dynamics simulations confirmed that psoralidin had the highest affinity for hnRNP A2B1 using implicit solvation models. Overall, this study revealed that hnRNP A2B1 is vital for cellular radiomodulation and is a promising target for radiomodulatory drugs that could have radioprotective or radiosensitizing effects.

Keywords: Hesperidin, Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins, hnRNP A2B1, indralin, molecular docking, natural radiomodulating drugs, Psoralidin, radiomodulators

Received: 13 Sep 2025; Accepted: 22 Dec 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Lubinets, Tonkyy, Sazonova, Dutta, Putintseva, Volkova, Skorb, Zun, Ruzov, Kravtsov and Shityakov. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
V. Yu. Kravtsov
Sergey Shityakov

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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