Anti-diabetic drug discovery using bioactive compounds: Molecular docking insights

John Oluwafemi Teibo 1, 2, *, Samuel Abidemi Bello 1, Oluwaseun Abraham Adebisi 1, Jeremiah Olorunjuwon Olugbami 1 and Titilade Kehinde Ayandeyi 3

1 Department of Biochemistry, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.
2 Department of Biochemistry and Immunology, Ribeirao Preto Medical School, University of Sao Paulo, Ribeirao Preto, SP-Brazil.
3 Department of Maternal-Infant and Public Health Nursing, University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto, College of Nursing, Ribeirão Preto, SP-Brazil.
 
Review Article
GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2021, 14(03), 175–178.
Article DOI: 10.30574/gscbps.2021.14.3.0048
Publication history: 
Received on 11 January 2021; revised on 10 March 2021; accepted on 12 March 2021
 
Abstract: 
Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder that has become a global health problem. About 500 million people were estimated to be living with diabetes in 2018 with about 20 million in Africa and 2 million cases in Nigeria. Bioactive compounds offer an advanced starting point in the search for highly specific and potent modulator of bimolecular function as well as novel drugs, which can be studied with more precision by using computer aided drug design (CADD). Molecular docking employed for predicting the interactions between receptor and ligands is an integral aspect in drug discovery. The main objective is to attain ligand-receptor complex with optimized conformation and with the intention of possessing less binding free energy.
 
Several studies have used this method to explore the potency of bioactive compounds to predict better alternatives in the search for an anti-diabetic drug with very effective therapeutic role and minimal side effects. This has been carried out by using several compounds such as Quercetin, against endogenous targets such as Glycogen phosphorylase, Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor (PPAR)-y, Glucokinase, Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase 1-beta (PTP-1B), GLUT4, etc. In Silico tools such as Protein Database (PDB), GenBank and softwares such as Autodock and modeller are of major importance to these studies.
 
The paper seeks to examine bioactive compounds basically quercetin that have been successfully identified through molecular docking and their molecular targets as well as recent advances in the use of molecular docking in the novel discovery and explanation of mechanisms of actions of some bioactive compounds in anti-diabetic drug discovery.
 
Keywords: 
Diabetes mellitus; Molecular Docking; Bioactive compounds; Quercetin; Computer-Aided Drug Discovery and Design (CADD).
 
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