Vanillin derivatives as the selective small molecule inhibitors of FtsZ

Filamentous temperature sensitive mutant Z: a putative target to combat antibacterial resistance

In the pre-antibiotic era, common bacterial infections accounted for high mortality and morbidity. Moreover, the discovery of penicillin in 1928 marked the beginning of an antibiotic revolution, and this antibiotic era witnessed the discovery of many novel antibiotics, a golden era. However, the misuse or overuse of these antibiotics, natural resistance that existed even before the antibiotics were discovered, genetic variations in bacteria, natural selection, and acquisition of resistance from one species to another consistently increased the resistance to the existing antibacterial targets. Antibacterial resistance (ABR) is now becoming an ever-increasing concern jeopardizing global health. Henceforth, there is an urgent unmet need to discover novel compounds to combat ABR, which act through untapped pathways/mechanisms. Filamentous Temperature Sensitive mutant Z (FtsZ) is one such unique target, a tubulin homolog involved in developing a cytoskeletal framework for the cytokinetic ring. Additionally, its pivotal role in bacterial cell division and the lack of homologous structural protein in mammals makes it a potential antibacterial target for developing novel molecules. Approximately 2176 X-crystal structures of FtsZ were available, which initiated the research efforts to develop novel antibacterial agents. The literature has reported several natural, semisynthetic, peptides, and synthetic molecules as FtsZ inhibitors. This review provides valuable insights into the basic crystal structure of FtsZ, its inhibitors, and their inhibitory activities. This review also describes the available in vitro detection and quantification methods of FtsZ-drug complexes and the various approaches for determining drugs targeting FtsZ polymerization.

Filamentous Thermosensitive Mutant Z: An Appealing Target for Emerging Pathogens and a Trek on Its Natural Inhibitors

Antibiotic resistance is a major emerging issue in the health care sector, as highlighted by the WHO. Filamentous Thermosensitive mutant Z (Fts-Z) is gaining significant attention in the scientific community as a potential anti-bacterial target for fighting antibiotic resistance among several pathogenic bacteria. The Fts-Z plays a key role in bacterial cell division by allowing Z ring formation. Several in vitro and in silico experiments have demonstrated that inhibition of Fts-Z can lead to filamentous growth of the cells, and finally, cell death occurs. Many natural compounds that have successfully inhibited Fts-Z are also studied. This review article intended to highlight the structural-functional aspect of Fts-Z that leads to Z-ring formation and its contribution to the biochemistry and physiology of cells. The current trend of natural inhibitors of Fts-Z protein is also covered.

Cell division protein FtsZ: from structure and mechanism to antibiotic target

Antimicrobial resistance to virtually all clinically applied antibiotic classes severely limits the available options to treat bacterial infections. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop and evaluate new antibiotics and targets with resistance-breaking properties. Bacterial cell division has emerged as a new antibiotic target pathway to counteract multidrug-resistant pathogens. New approaches in antibiotic discovery and bacterial cell biology helped to identify compounds that either directly interact with the major cell division protein FtsZ, thereby perturbing the function and dynamics of the cell division machinery, or affect the structural integrity of FtsZ by inducing its degradation. The impressive antimicrobial activities and resistance-breaking properties of certain compounds validate the inhibition of bacterial cell division as a promising strategy for antibiotic intervention.

Benzodioxane-Benzamides as Antibacterial Agents: Computational and SAR Studies to Evaluate the Influence of the 7-Substitution in FtsZ Interaction

FtsZ is a crucial prokaryotic protein involved in bacterial cell replication. It recently arose as a promising target in the search for antimicrobial agents able to fight antimicrobial resistance. In this work, going on with our structure-activity relationship (SAR) study, we developed variously 7-substituted 1,4-benzodioxane compounds, linked to the 2,6-difluorobenzamide by a methylenoxy bridge. Compounds exhibit promising antibacterial activities not only against multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, but also on mutated Escherichia coli strains, thus enlarging their spectrum of action toward Gram-negative bacteria as well. Computational studies elucidated, through a validated FtsZ binding protocol, the structural features of new promising derivatives as FtsZ inhibitors.

FtsZ inhibitors as a new genera of antibacterial agents

The continuous emergence and rapid spread of a multidrug-resistant strain of bacterial pathogens have demanded the discovery and development of new antibacterial agents. A highly conserved prokaryotic cell division protein FtsZ is considered as a promising target by inhibiting bacterial cytokinesis. Inhibition of FtsZ assembly restrains the cell-division complex known as divisome, which results in filamentation, leading to lysis of the cell. This review focuses on details relating to the structure, function, and influence of FtsZ in bacterial cytokinesis. It also summarizes on the recent perspective of the known natural and synthetic inhibitors directly acting on FtsZ protein, with prominent antibacterial activities. A series of benzamides, trisubstituted benzimidazoles, isoquinolene, guanine nucleotides, zantrins, carbonylpyridine, 4 and 5-Substituted 1-phenyl naphthalenes, sulindac, vanillin analogues were studied here and recognized as FtsZ inhibitors that act either by disturbing FtsZ polymerization and/or GTPase activity. Doxorubicin, from a U.S. FDA, approved drug library displayed strong interaction with FtsZ. Several of the molecules discussed, include the prodrugs of benzamide based compound PC190723 (TXA-709 and TXA707). These molecules have exhibited the most prominent antibacterial activity against several strains of Staphylococcus aureus with minimal toxicity and good pharmacokinetics properties. The evidence of research reports and patent documentations on FtsZ protein has disclosed distinct support in the field of antibacterial drug discovery. The pressing need and interest shall facilitate the discovery of novel clinical molecules targeting FtsZ in the upcoming days.

Discovery of promising FtsZ inhibitors by E-pharmacophore, 3D-QSAR, molecular docking study, and molecular dynamics simulation

Asbtract Filamentous temperature-sensitive protein Z (FtsZ), playing a key role in bacterial cell division, is regarded as a promising target for the design of antimicrobial agent. This study is looking for potential high-efficiency FtsZ inhibitors. Ligand-based pharmacophore and E-pharmacophore, virtual screening and molecular docking were used to detect promising FtsZ inhibitors, and molecular dynamics simulation was used to study the stability of protein-ligand complexes in this paper. Sixty-three inhibitors from published literatures with pIC₅₀ ranging from 2.483 to 5.678 were collected to develop ligand-based pharmacophore model. 4DXD bound with 9PC was selected to develop the E-pharmacophore model. The pharmacophore models validated by test set method and decoy set were employed for virtual screening to exclude inactive compounds against ZINC database. After molecular docking, ADME analysis, IFD docking and MM-GBSA, 8 hits were identified as potent FtsZ inhibitors. A 50 ns molecular dynamics simulation was implemented on the compounds to assess the stability between potent inhibitors and FtsZ. The results indicated that the candidate compounds had a high docking score and were strongly combined with FtsZ by forming hydrogen bonding interactions with key amino acid residues, and van der Waals forces and hydrophobic interactions had significant contribution to the stability of the binding. Molecular dynamics simulation results showed that the protein-ligand compounds performed well in both the stability and flexibility of the simulation process.

Antibacterial and antioxidant activities for natural and synthetic dual-active compounds

Antimicrobial resistance is widely recognized as a grave threat to global health in the 21st century, since the past decades have seen a dramatic increase in human-pathogenic bacteria that are resistant to one or multiple antibiotics. New antimicrobial agents are urgently required, particularly in the treatment of chronic infections such as cystic fibrosis, often associated with persistent colonization by drug-resistant pathogens and epithelial damage by pulmonary oxidative stress. In such events, it would be favourable to find agents that could have antioxidant and antibacterial activities combined in one molecule. The discovery of compounds that can show a dual-target activity considerably increased in the last years, reflecting the growing confidence that this new approach could lead to better therapeutic solutions for complex multigenic diseases. The aim of this review is to report those natural and synthetic compounds displaying significant antioxidant and antibacterial activities. In recent years there has been a growing attention on plant-derived antimicrobials as an alternative to antibiotics, for their efficacy and low tendency in developing bacterial resistance. Moreover, it was found that some natural products could enhance the activity of common antibiotics displaying a synergistic effect. We then report some selected synthetic compounds with an in-built capacity to act on two targets or with the combination in a single structure of two pharmacophores with antioxidant and antibacterial activities. Recent literature instances were screened and the most promising examples of dual-active antibacterial-antioxidant molecules were highlighted.

Recent advances in the discovery and development of antibacterial agents targeting the cell-division protein FtsZ

With the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacterial strains, there is a dire need for new drug targets for antibacterial drug discovery and development. Filamentous temperature sensitive protein Z (FtsZ), is a GTP-dependent prokaryotic cell division protein, sharing less than 10% sequence identity with the eukaryotic cell division protein, tubulin. FtsZ forms a dynamic Z-ring in the middle of the cell, leading to septation and subsequent cell division. Inhibition of the Z-ring blocks cell division, thus making FtsZ a highly attractive target. Various groups have been working on natural products and synthetic small molecules as inhibitors of FtsZ. This review summarizes the recent advances in the development of FtsZ inhibitors, focusing on those in the last 5years, but also includes significant findings in previous years.

Identification of agents targeting FtsZ assembly

Filamenting temperature-sensitive mutant Z (FtsZ), an essential cell division protein in bacteria, has recently emerged as an important and exploitable antibacterial target. Cytokinesis in bacteria is regulated by the assembly dynamics of this protein, which is ubiquitously present in eubacteria. The perturbation of FtsZ assembly has been found to have a deleterious effect on the cytokinetic machinery and, in turn, upon cell survival. FtsZ is highly conserved among prokaryotes, offering the possibility of broad-spectrum antibacterial agents, while its limited sequence homology with tubulin (an essential protein in eukaryotic mitosis) offers the possibility of selective toxicity. This review aims to summarize current knowledge regarding the mechanism of action of FtsZ, and to highlight existing attempts toward the development of clinically useful inhibitors.