Diabetes mellitus and gastrointestinal infections remain major global health concerns, contributing to high morbidity, mortality, and economic burden. To address these challenges, a series of oxadiazole-bearing imine scaffolds were designed and synthesized as dual α-glucosidase and urease inhibitors. Among them, compound 5 (IC50 = 5.30 ± 0.20 μM for α-glucosidase; 8.60 ± 0.30 μM for urease) and compound 6 (IC50 = 3.80 ± 0.60 μM; 5.20 ± 0.40 μM) exhibited the most potent inhibitory activity. The in vitro potential of these compounds was compared with the standard compounds urease (IC50 = 12.20 ± 0.21 μM) and acarbose (IC50 = 10.30 ± 1.10 μM). All compounds were synthesized and characterized using 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and HREI-MS. In silico studies, including molecular docking, revealed strong binding interactions between the active molecules and target enzymes. Density Functional Theory (DFT) analysis provided insights into electronic characteristics such as HOMO-LUMO energy gaps and reactive molecular regions, while ADMET profiling confirmed favorable drug-likeness. Pharmacophore modeling of compound 6 highlighted critical hydrogen-bonding interactions, and molecular dynamics simulations further validated the stability and affinity of the protein-ligand complexes. Collectively, these findings suggest that the synthesized oxadiazole derivatives are promising dual inhibitors with potential therapeutic relevance in diabetes and gastrointestinal infections.
Bibi et al. (Sun,) studied this question.