Phenolic compounds as α-glucosidase inhibitors: a docking and molecular dynamics simulation study

Phenolic compounds possess significant biological activity. Several pieces of research emphasize the medicinal importance of phenolic compounds, including diabetes. The present study investigated the alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity of phenolic compounds reported from several plants. The phenolic compounds reported in different literature were collected. Molecular docking was carried out using AutoDock Vina. Various physicochemical properties such as size, LogP, molecular complexity, hydrogen bonding properties of phenolic compounds were correlated with the binding affinities. Furthermore, MD simulation was carried out to study the structural stability of the docking complexes. A total of 155 phenolic compounds were reported from different plants. Amentoflavone showed the strongest binding affinity with alpha-glucosidase, much more potent than reference acarbose. The binding energy showed a good correlation with the molecular complexity, hydrogen bond donor and acceptor property and heavy atom counts of the compounds. The polarity of the surface area also showed a positive correlation with the binding affinity of the compounds. The best docking phenolic compound, amentoflavone, showed stable binding affinity and conformation during the simulation period compared to apoprotein and acarbose-docking complex. The top ten phenolic compounds, including amentoflavone, showed considerable drug-likeness properties with fewer toxicity effects. The study suggests that the amentoflavone could be a potential therapeutic drug as an alpha-glucosidase inhibitor and help control postprandial hyperglycemia.