Integrated multi-spectroscopic and molecular docking techniques to probe the interaction mechanism between maltase and 1-deoxynojirimycin, an α-glucosidase inhibitor.

Interaction mechanism of an antidiabetic agent, 1-deoxynojirimycin (DNJ) with its target protein α-glucosidase (maltase), was investigated by kinetics, fluorescence spectroscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy, circular dichroism, dynamic light scattering coupled with molecular docking analysis. It was found that DNJ reversibly inhibited activity of maltase through a mixed-type manner with IC50 of (1.5±0.1) μM and inhibition constant Ki of (2.01±0.02) μM. Fluorescence data and UV-vis information confirmed that the intrinsic fluorescence of maltase was quenched by DNJ through a dynamic quenching procedure due to the collision of them. The calculated thermodynamic parameters including enthalpy change, entropy change and Gibbs free energy change indicated that their binding was spontaneous and the driven force was hydrophobic interaction. Besides, circular dichroism analysis displayed that their binding resulted conformational changes of maltase, characterizing by a decrease of α-helix and an increase in β-sheet. Dynamic light scattering measurements demonstrated the reduction in the hydrodynamic radii of maltase. Further molecular docking revealed that DNJ formed hydrogen bonds with catalytic residues Asp68, Arg212, Asp214, Glu276, Asp349 and Arg439 of maltase, then inhibited the enzyme activity by occupying catalytic center. This study provided a comprehensively understanding about the action mechanism of DNJ on maltase.