Biocomputational Prediction Approach Targeting FimH by Natural SGLT2 Inhibitors: A Possible Way to Overcome the Uropathogenic Effect of SGLT2 Inhibitor Drugs

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new class of anti-diabetic medication (a sodium–glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor) in 2013. However, SGLT2 inhibitor drugs are under evaluation due to their associative side effects, such as urinary tract and genital infection, urinary discomfort, diabetic ketosis, and kidney problems. Even clinicians have difficulty in recommending it to diabetic patients due to the increased probability of urinary tract infection. In our study, we selected natural SGLT2 inhibitors, namely acerogenin B, formononetin, (−)-kurarinone, (+)-pteryxin, and quinidine, to explore their potential against an emerging uropathogenic bacterial therapeutic target, i.e., FimH. FimH plays a critical role in the colonization of uropathogenic bacteria on the urinary tract surface. Thus, FimH antagonists show promising effects against uropathogenic bacterial strains via their targeting of FimH’s adherence mechanism with less chance of resistance. The molecular docking results showed that, among natural SGLT2 inhibitors, formononetin, (+)-pteryxin, and quinidine have a strong interaction with FimH proteins, with binding energy (∆G) and inhibition constant (ki) values of −5.65 kcal/mol and 71.95 µM, −5.50 kcal/mol and 92.97 µM, and −5.70 kcal/mol and 66.40 µM, respectively. These interactions were better than those of the positive control heptyl α-d-mannopyranoside and far better than those of the SGLT2 inhibitor drug canagliflozin. Furthermore, a 50 ns molecular dynamics simulation was conducted to optimize the interaction, and the resulting complexes were found to be stable. Physicochemical property assessments predicted little toxicity and good drug-likeness properties for these three compounds. Therefore, formononetin, (+)-pteryxin, and quinidine can be proposed as promising SGLT2 inhibitors drugs, with add-on FimH inhibition potential that might reduce the probability of uropathogenic side effects.