Mechanism of Action of Glucomannan as a Potential Therapeutic Agent for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Based on Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking Simulation

Glucomannan is a polysaccharide with several health benefits such as the ability to lower blood sugar, slow gastric emptying time, accelerate satiety, and modify intestinal microbial metabolism. Therefore it has a potential as an alternative therapy for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This study explores the mechanism of action of glucomannan as a potential therapeutic agent for T2DM through network pharmacology and molecular docking simulations. Glucomannan and T2DM target proteins were searched using GeneCard and OpenTarget Platform, respectively. The connectivity between T2DM target proteins and glucomannan were done using Cytoscape and Venny diagrams. Virtual screening was performed using Pyrx software with protein-targeted T2DM and visualization was done using Discovery Studio. There were 9 key targets related to the mechanism of action of glucomannan based on target connectivity construction. From the docking results, the lowest binding affinity of-9.6 kcal/mol was obtained between glucomannan and 3WY1 (PDB ID of GAA/alpha-glucosidase). This binding affinity was comparable to that obtained for the positive controls; acarbose and miglitol, with binding affinity of-9.7 kcal/mol for acarbose-3WY1 complex. The 3D structure visualization showed that glucomannan and acarbose occupy the same active site on the 3WY1 structure. The results of this study indicate that the most probable mechanism of action of glucomannan is inhibition of α-glucosidase, and therefore could be a potential alternative therapeutic agent for T2DM.