Aldose Reductase Inhibitiory Effect of Gymnemic Acid, Trigonelline and Ferulic Acid- An In Silico Approach

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the earliest complications of chronic hyperglycemia and is a major cause of vision loss. Nearly all patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus and more than 60 % with chronic type 2 diabetes develop some degree of retinopathy after 10 years. Aldose reductase, the first enzyme in polyol pathway chiefly contributes to the development of diabetic retinopathy and other secondary complications. None of the currently available drugs used to inhibit the activity of aldose reductase is found to be ideal due to their adverse effects. Hence, the screening and identification of more effective and safer aldose reductase inhibitors from natural products have been critical requirement in the management and treatment of T2DM. Recently, we have reported the antidiabetic properties of phytochemicals such as Gymnemic acid, Trigonelline and Ferulic acid in high fat diet fedlow dose STZ induced experimental type 2 diabetes in rats. In the present study, the structure based computational method was employed to identify the in silico inhibitory effect of the above phytoingredients on aldose reductase activity. Auto Dock 4.2 is used to study the molecular interactions between the ligands and the receptor. The data obtained evidenced that the docking efficacy of the antidiabetic ligands which are comparable with fidarestat, the standard used in the present study. Thus, the antidiabetic properties of the above lead molecules may attribute to its aldose reductase inhibitory effect.