IDENTIFICATION OF POTENTIAL PPARγ AGONIST SIMILAR TO PHYTOCHEMICAL MAGNOLOL

Cis-Hinokiresinol or (z) -Hinokiresinol is a lignan found in Anemarrhena asphodeloides. It has also been investigated for its anti-inflammatory property using both in vitro and in vivo studies. Researchers have conducted many studies in order to develop relationship between various inflammation mediators and Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Therefore, the anti-inflammatory effect of Hinokiresinol can be linked for its role in diabetes. In this study, we tried to explore the binding affinity of hinokiresinol with the nuclear receptor PPARγ, an important therapeutic target for type 2 diabetes. Hinokiresinol was found to have the structural similarity with natural PPARγ agonist, magnolol, a reported phytochemicals having potential effect in Type 2 diabetes. Magnolol was used as a query molecule for data mining and similarity searching. Molecular docking studies revealed that the affinity score of Hinokiresinol was higher, -10.2 (kcal/mol), than that of the standard magnolol -8.2 (kcal/mol). Also, Hinokiresinol have similar interaction profile, binding the same active site with at least one common interacting amino acid residue PHE 282. The ADME properties also suggest that Hinokiresinol can be a good candidate for further exploration. Our study recommends Hinokiresinol as potential PPAR gamma agonists and pharmaceutical lead molecule for further molecular dynamic studies as well as in vitro and in vivo studies. To best of our knowledge, this is the first report highlighting the PPARγ agonistic activity of Hinokiresinol.