The Role of QSAR and Virtual Screening Studies in Type 2 Diabetes Drug Discovery

Med Chem. 2017;13(8):706-720. doi: 10.2174/1573406413666170522152102.

Abstract

Background: Due to the increasing number of diabetes cases worldwide, there is an international concern to provide even more effective treatments to control this condition.

Methods: This review brings together a selection of studies that helped to broaden the comprehension of various biological targets and associated mechanisms involved in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Results: Such studies demonstrated that QSAR techniques and virtual screenings have been successfully employed in drug design projects.

Conclusions: Therefore, the main goal of this review is to give the state-of-art for the development of new drugs for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and to evaluate how computational tools, such as virtual screening and 3D-QSAR, can aid the development of new drugs with reduced adverse side effects.

Keywords: Biological targets; QSAR; computational chemistry; diabetes; drug design; virtual screening.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / drug therapy*
  • Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
  • Drug Discovery*
  • Humans
  • Hypoglycemic Agents / chemistry
  • Hypoglycemic Agents / therapeutic use*
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Structure
  • Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship*

Substances

  • Hypoglycemic Agents