Integrated fragment-based drug design and virtual screening techniques for exploring the antidiabetic potential of thiazolidine-2,4-diones: Design, synthesis and in vivo studies

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder characterized by elevated blood sugar levels and related complications. This study focuses on harnessing and integrating fragment-based drug design and virtual screening techniques to explore the antidiabetic potential of newly synthesized thiazolidine-2,4-dione derivatives. The research involves the design of novel variations of thiazolidine-2,4-dione compounds by Fragment-Based Drug Design. The screening process involves pharmacophore based virtual screening through docking algorithms, and the identification of newly twelve top-scoring compounds. The molecular docking analysis revealed that compounds SP4e, SP4f showed highest docking scores of −9.082 and −10.345. The binding free energies of the compounds SP4e, SP4f and pioglitazone was found to be −19.9, −16.1 and −13 respectively, calculated using the Prime MM/GBSA approach. The molecular dynamic study validates the docking results. Furthermore, In the Swiss albino mice model, both SP4e and SP4f exhibited significant hypoglycaemic effects, comparable to the reference drug pioglitazone. Furthermore, these compounds demonstrated favorable effects on the lipid profile, reducing total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL levels while increasing HDL levels. In mice tissue, the disease control group showed PPAR-γ expression of 4.200 ± 0.24, while compound SP4f displayed higher activation at 7.84 ± 0.431 compared to compound SP4e with an activation of 7.68 ± 0.65. In zebrafish model, SP4e and SP4f showed significant reductions in blood glucose levels and lipid peroxidation, along with increased glutathione levels and catalase activity. These findings highlighted the potential of SP4e and SP4f as antidiabetic agents, warranting further exploration for therapeutic applications. The in vitro study was performed in HEK-2 cell line, the pioglitazone group demonstrated PPAR-γ expression of EC50 = 575.2, while compound SP4f exhibited enhanced activation at EC50 = 739.0 in contrast to compound SP4e activation of EC50 = 826.7.