Docking study of secondary metabolites from Glycyrrhiza glabra as PPAR-γ agonist

Abstract

Discovery of potent yet cheap antidiabetic drugs with PPAR-γ agonist activity resulted in the discovery of several partial agonists of PPAR-γ. Glabridin, an isoflavone metabolite found in the root of Glycyrrhiza glabra has been associated with a wide range of biological properties, such as antidiabetic and antiobesity properties mediated by PPAR-γ receptors activation. This study aims to determine secondary metabolites of G. glabra with the highest affinity as PPAR-γ agonists with molecular docking method. The docking results showed that among other test ligands, the highest affinity was shown by glabrene. However, significant differences occur at amino acid residues from glabrene against the corresponding ligand. Interestingly, besides glabridin with 73% similar amino acid, the similarity of amino acid throughout the test ligands is less than half of glabridin. Glabridin also shows different types of interactions with some thiazolidinediones which are known to have quite dangerous side effects, so that glabridin is predicted not to have similar side effects. Thus, glabridin should be potential to be developed as the PPAR-γ agonist.