*Article* **Biophysical, Biochemical, and Molecular Docking Investigations of Anti-Glycating, Antioxidant, and Protein Structural Stability Potential of Garlic**

**Mohd W. A. Khan 1,\*, Ahmed A. Otaibi <sup>1</sup> , Abdulmohsen K. D. Alsukaibi <sup>1</sup> , Eida M. Alshammari <sup>1</sup> , Salma A. Al-Zahrani <sup>1</sup> , Subuhi Sherwani <sup>2</sup> , Wahid A. Khan <sup>3</sup> , Ritika Saha <sup>4</sup> , Smita R. Verma <sup>4</sup> and Nessar Ahmed <sup>5</sup>**


**Abstract:** Garlic has been reported to inhibit protein glycation, a process that underlies several disease processes, including chronic complications of diabetes mellitus. Biophysical, biochemical, and molecular docking investigations were conducted to assess anti-glycating, antioxidant, and protein structural protection activities of garlic. Results from spectral (UV and fluorescence) and circular dichroism (CD) analysis helped ascertain protein conformation and secondary structure protection against glycation to a significant extent. Further, garlic showed heat-induced protein denaturation inhibition activity (52.17%). It also inhibited glycation, advanced glycation end products (AGEs) formation as well as lent human serum albumin (HSA) protein structural stability, as revealed by reduction in browning intensity (65.23%), decrease in protein aggregation index (67.77%), and overall reduction in cross amyloid structure formation (33.26%) compared with positive controls (100%). The significant antioxidant nature of garlic was revealed by FRAP assay (58.23%) and DPPH assay (66.18%). Using molecular docking analysis, some of the important garlic metabolites were investigated for their interactions with the HSA molecule. Molecular docking analysis showed quercetin, a phenolic compound present in garlic, appears to be the most promising inhibitor of glucose interaction with the HSA molecule. Our findings show that garlic can prevent oxidative stress and glycation-induced biomolecular damage and that it can potentially be used in the treatment of several health conditions, including diabetes and other inflammatory diseases.

**Keywords:** garlic; antioxidant; anti-glycation; glycation; AGEs; HSA

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**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
