Exploring potent aldose reductase inhibitors for anti-diabetic (anti-hyperglycemic) therapy: integrating structure-based drug design, and MMGBSA approaches

Aldose reductase (AR) is an important target in the development of therapeutics against hyper-glycemia-induced health complications such as retinopathy, etc. In this study, we employed a combination of structure-based drug design, molecular simulation, and free energy calculation approaches to identify potential hit molecules against anti-diabetic (anti-hyperglycemic)-induced health complications. The 3D structure of aldoreductase was screened for multiple compound libraries (1,00,000 compounds) and identified as ZINC35671852, ZINC78774792 from the ZINC database, Diamino-di nitro-methyl dioctyl phthalate, and Penta-o-galloyl-glucose from the South African natural compounds database, and Bisindolylmethane thiosemi-carbazides and Bisindolylme-thane-hydrazone from the Inhouse database for this study. The mode of binding interactions of the selected compounds later predicted their aldose reductase inhibitory potential. These com-pounds interact with the key active site residues through hydrogen bonds, salt bridges, and π-π interactions. The structural dynamics and binding free energy results further revealed that these compounds possess stable dynamics with excellent binding free energy scores. The structures of the lead inhibitors can serve as templates for developing novel inhibitors, and in vitro testing to confirm their anti-diabetic potential is warranted. The current study is the first to design small molecule inhibitors for the aldoreductase protein that can be used in the development of therapeutic agents to treat diabetes.