Thirty-five 9-O-berberrubine carboxylate derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for yeast α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. All compounds demonstrated better inhibitory activities than the parent compounds berberine (BBR) and berberrubine (BBRB), and a positive control, acarbose. The structure-activity correlation study indicated that most of the substituents on the benzoate moiety such as methoxy, hydroxy, methylenedioxy, benzyloxy, halogen, trifluoromethyl, nitro and alkyl can contribute to the activities except multi-methoxy, fluoro and cyano. In addition, replacing benzoate with naphthoate, cinnamate, piperate or diphenylacetate also led to an increase in inhibitory activities except with phenyl acetate. 9, 26, 27, 28 and 33 exhibited the most potent α-glucosidase inhibitory activities with the IC50 values in the range of 1.61-2.67 μM. Kinetic study revealed that 9, 26, 28 and 33 interacted with the enzyme via competitive mode. These four compounds were also proved to be not cytotoxic at their IC50 values. The competitive inhibition mechanism of these four compounds against yeast α-glucosidase was investigated using molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations. The binding free energy calculations suggest that 26 exhibited the strongest binding affinity, and its binding stability is supported by hydrophobic interactions with D68, F157, F158 and F177. Therefore, 9, 26, 28 and 33 would be promising candidates for further studies of antidiabetic activity.
© 2023. The Author(s).