Docking Studies of Aldose Reductase Inhibitory Activity of Commercially Available Flavonoids

Molecular docking is a frequently used tool in computer-aided structure-based rational drug design. Flavonoids are a group of natural products which exhibits various biological and pharmacological activities. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the aldose reductase inhibitory activity of flavonoids using in silico docking studies. In this perspective, flavonoids like aromadedrin, eriodictyol, homoeriodictyol, isorhamnetin, okanin, pachypodol, peonidin, robinetin, tangeritin were selected. Epalrestat, a known aldose reductase inhibitor was used as the standard. In silico docking studies were carried out using AutoDock 4.2, based on the Lamarckian genetic algorithm principle. The interacting residues within the complex model and their contact types were identified. In the docking studies, three important parameters like binding energy, inhibition constant and intermolecular energy were determined. The results showed that all the selected flavonoids showed binding energy ranging between -9.20 kcal/mol to -8.02 kcal/mol when compared with that of the standard (-8.73 kcal/mol). Inhibition constant (181.13 nM to 1.32 μM) and intermolecular energy (-10.99 kcal/mol to -9.81 kcal/mol) of the flavonoids also coincide with the binding energy. All the selected flavonoids contributed aldose reductase inhibitory activity because of its structural properties. These molecular docking analyses could lead to the further development of potent aldose reductase inhibitors for the treatment of diabetes. Further investigations on the above compounds and in vivo studies are necessary to develop potential chemical entities for the prevention and treatment of diabetes. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________