Molecular mechanisms underlying the erectogenic effects of nutraceutical lunamarine, a novel PDE5 inhibitor derived from watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The research paper investigates the phytochemicals of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) as potential novel inhibitors of phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5), which is essential for treating erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension. A total of 150 compounds were screened against five PDE5 enzyme structures using molecular docking techniques with Chimera and AutoDock Vina. Interactions were visualized with Chimera and PyMOL, while SwissADME was employed to predict pharmacokinetic properties, and ProTox-II was utilized to assess toxicity. Lunamarine has emerged as a promising candidate for PDE5 inhibition, demonstrating superior pharmacokinetics and favorable toxicity profiles. It exhibited high gastrointestinal absorption and permeability across the blood–brain barrier, potentially outperforming existing inhibitors. The binding energies ranged from − 9.421 to − 9.55 kcal/mol across various PDE5 targets, indicating comparable efficacy. Structural analyses revealed significant hydrophobic interactions with PHE820 and LEU725, as well as hydrogen bonding with TYR612, which are crucial for the formation of the binding pocket. Lunamarine’s effect on catalytic zinc coordination was evidenced by receptor-ligand distances of 3.6 to 3.7 Å. These findings suggest that lunamarine may provide advantages over current therapies, particularly regarding its penetration of the central nervous system. The study recommends further in vitro and in vivo validation of lunamarine's efficacy and safety, as well as an exploration of its potential in other conditions related to PDE5. This research could pave the way for the development of watermelon-derived nutraceuticals for disorders associated with PDE5.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".