In silico Analysis for Laccase-mediated Bioremediation of the Emerging Pharmaceutical Pollutants

Laccases, a copper oxidase enzyme, has been employed for bioremediation of anthropogenic pollutants in the recent past. Laccase has a broad range of substrate specificity which offers the prospect for screening in numerable xenobiotics. The present study was aimed to use protein-ligand docking as a tool for prediction of biodegradation of selected pharmaceutical pollutants. A comparative study was also done to determine the binding efficacy of bacterial and fungal laccase for those selected pollutants. The laccase-pollutant docking was carried out using HEX software. The docking scores of bacterial and fungal laccase for predefined pollutants were comparable to ABTS, a substrate for laccase, which suggested that laccase might be able to degrade emerging pharmaceutical pollutants. The docking analysis approach can be useful in prediction of binding competence of pharmaceutical pollutants with laccase for in situ laccase-mediated bioremediation.