Dipeptidyl Peptidase 4 Inhibitors in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Management: Pharmacophore Virtual Screening, Molecular Docking, Pharmacokinetic Evaluations, and Conceptual DFT Analysis

Abstract

Dipeptidyl Peptidase 4 (DPP-4) expressed on the surface of many different cells is a promising target to develop new candidates for Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) management. In this light, we performed a computer-aided simulation involving 3-D pharmacophore screening, molecular docking, and drug-likeness assessment to identify novel potential DPP-4 inhibitors with an improved physicochemical profile to treat T2DM. In addition, global reactivity descriptors, including HOMO and LUMO energies, HOMO-LUMO gaps, and Fukui indices, were computed to confirm the essential structural features to achieve DPP-4 activity. The gathered outcomes recommend that eight out of 240 million compounds collected from eight pre-built databases (Molport, Chembl30, ChemDiv, ChemSpace, Mcule, Mcule-ultimate, LabNetwork, and ZINC) are drug-like and nontoxic, and may serve as starting points for designing novel, selective, and potent DPP-4 inhibitors. Furthermore, the success of the current workflow to identify DPP-4-potential inhibitors strengthens its potential efficiency to also predict natural compounds as novel adjutants or main therapy for T2DM or discover hit compounds of other targets.