Computational investigation to identify multi-targeted anti-hyperglycemic potential of substituted 2-Mercaptobenzimidazole derivatives and synthesis of new α-glucosidase inhibitors.

One of the most widespread diseases recognized all over the world is diabetes, accounting for 1.5 million deaths each year. Recent studies have demonstrated benzimidazole derivatives as potential antidiabetic agents. Hence, the present study is focused on designing new derivatives of 2-mercaptobenzimidazole by C-S cross-coupling reaction and are subjected to computational screening to identify the most promising candidate. Molecular docking and MM-GBSA calculations were performed to ascertain the binding potential with different antidiabetic targets, including α-glucosidase, PPaR-γ, DPP-4, and AMPK. We observed somewhat moderate binding interactions of the synthesized compound against the α-glucosidase. Since binding affinities can be improved using synthetic chemistry approaches, synthesis of analogues (A-18a-c) by designing hybrids at sites such as the acidic functionality of A-18 was done. The analogue A-18a, with p-fluorobenzyl substitution, exhibited enhanced binding affinity (-4.339 Kcal/mol) with the α-glucosidase compared to the parent compound (-3.827 Kcal/mol). The synthesized analogues were also subjected to an in-vitro α-glucosidase inhibitory assay. Among them, A-18a exhibited the most significant inhibitory potential, with an IC