Inhibitory effect of α-ketoglutaric acid on α-glucosidase: Integrating molecular dynamics simulation and inhibition kinetics.

The inhibition of alpha-glucosidase is used as a key clinical approach to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus and thus, we assessed the inhibitory effect of alpha-ketoglutaric acid (AKG) on alpha-glucosidase with both an enzyme kinetic assay and computational simulations. AKG bound to the active site and interacted with several key residues, including ASP68, PHE157, PHE177, PHE311, ARG312, TYR313, ASN412, ILE434 and ARG439, as detected by protein-ligand docking and molecular dynamics simulations. Subsequently, we confirmed the action of AKG on alpha-glucosidase as mixed-type inhibition with reversible and rapid binding. The relevant kinetic parameter IC50 was measured (IC50 = 1.738 +/- 0.041 mM), and the dissociation constant was determined (K-i Slope = 0.46 +/- 0.04 mM). Regarding the relationship between structure and activity, a high AKG concentration induced the slight modulation of the shape of the active site, as monitored by hydrophobic exposure. This tertiary conformational change was linked to AKG inhibition and mostly involved regional changes in the active site. Our study provides insight into the functional role of AKG due to its structural property of a hydroxyphenyl ring that interacts with the active site. We suggest that similar hydroxyphenyl ring-containing compounds targeting key residues in the active site might be potential alpha-glucosidase inhibitors.