At high doses, green tea extracts and green tea’s major active constituent, (−)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), despite their generally perceived health benefits, have been suspected to cause hepatotoxicity in certain human populations. It has been reported that o-quinone metabolites of gallic acid or EGCG are causative agents for this hepatotoxicity. However, no experimental information is available at the molecular level on the possible role of NQO1 in the detoxification of EGCG and its metabolites, including reactive intermediates. In the present study, we investigated the possibility of NQO1 inhibition by EGCG and its metabolites by studying their interaction profiles and binding mechanism at the active site of NQO1 using molecular docking, binding free energy calculations, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The binding free energy calculations showed that some metabolites exhibited strong predicted binding affinity and found that the binding orientation of the EGCG metabolites overlapped with that of dicoumarol found in an NQO1 X-ray crystal structure. The results suggest that these metabolites may act as strong NQO1 inhibitors, highlighting the need for experimental validation of this with appropriate biological methods. The Prime MM-GBSA computed average binding free energies after MD simulations of compounds 1, 2, 24, 31, and 33 revealed that these compounds highly favored van der Waals (VdW) and Coulombic interactions with NQO1. In addition, the MD results revealed that selected EGCG metabolites formed a stable and strong complex with NQO1, with amino acids W105, Y126, Y128, H161, F178, H194, F232, and F236 being critical for potential NQO1 binding. The current results together with experimental data as well as studies of the polymorphisms of NQO1 (especially C609T) may explain the observed idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity caused by the consumption of green tea and its constituents.

By Pankaj Pandey, Bharathi Avula, Ikhlas A. Khan, Shabana I. Khan, Victor J. Navarro, Robert J. Doerksen, and Amar G. Chittiboyina