Combined HQSAR, topomer CoMFA, homology modeling and docking studies on triazole derivatives as SGLT2 inhibitors

Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) is a promising target for diabetes therapy. We aimed to develop computational approaches to identify structural features for more potential SGLT2 inhibitors.

In this work, 46 triazole derivatives as SGLT2 inhibitors were studied using a combination of several approaches, including hologram quantitative structure-activity relationships (HQSAR), topomer comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA), homology modeling, and molecular docking. HQSAR and topomer CoMFA were used to construct models. Molecular docking was conducted to investigate the interaction of triazole derivatives and homology modeling of SGLT2, as well as to validate the results of the HQSAR and topomer CoMFA models.

The most effective HQSAR and topomer CoMFA models exhibited noncross-validated correlation coefficients of 0.928 and 0.891 for the training set, respectively. External predictions were made successfully on a test set and then compared with previously reported models. The graphical results of HQSAR and topomer CoMFA were proven to be consistent with the binding mode of the inhibitors and SGLT2 from molecular docking.

The models and docking provided important insights into the design of potent inhibitors for SGLT2.