Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of LpxC inhibitors with novel hydrophilic terminus

Bacterial Zinc Metalloenzyme Inhibitors: Recent Advances and Future Perspectives

Human deaths caused by Gram-negative bacteria keep rising due to the multidrug resistance (MDR) phenomenon. Therefore, it is a priority to develop novel antibiotics with different mechanisms of action. Several bacterial zinc metalloenzymes are becoming attractive targets since they do not show any similarities with the human endogenous zinc-metalloproteinases. In the last decades, there has been an increasing interest from both industry and academia in developing new inhibitors against those enzymes involved in lipid A biosynthesis, and bacteria nutrition and sporulation, e.g., UDP-[3-O-(R)-3-hydroxymyristoyl]-N-acetylglucosamine deacetylase (LpxC), thermolysin (TLN), and pseudolysin (PLN). Nevertheless, targeting these bacterial enzymes is harder than expected and the lack of good clinical candidates suggests that more effort is needed. This review gives an overview of bacterial zinc metalloenzyme inhibitors that have been synthesized so far, highlighting the structural features essential for inhibitory activity and the structure-activity relationships. Our discussion may stimulate and help further studies on bacterial zinc metalloenzyme inhibitors as possible novel antibacterial drugs.

Synthesis, Antimicrobial, and Antibiofilm Activities of Some Novel 7-Methoxyquinoline Derivatives Bearing Sulfonamide Moiety against Urinary Tract Infection-Causing Pathogenic Microbes

A new series of 4-((7-methoxyquinolin-4-yl) amino)-N-(substituted) benzenesulfonamide 3(a-s) was synthesized via the reaction of 4-chloro-7-methoxyquinoline 1 with various sulfa drugs. The structural elucidation was verified based on spectroscopic data analysis. All the target compounds were screened for their antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria, and unicellular fungi. The results revealed that compound 3l has the highest effect on most tested bacterial and unicellular fungal strains. The highest effect of compound 3l was observed against E. coli and C. albicans with MIC = 7.812 and 31.125 µg/mL, respectively. Compounds 3c and 3d showed broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, but the activity was lower than that of 3l. The antibiofilm activity of compound 3l was measured against different pathogenic microbes isolated from the urinary tract. Compound 3l could achieve biofilm extension at its adhesion strength. After adding 10.0 µg/mL of compound 3l, the highest percentage was 94.60% for E. coli, 91.74% for P. aeruginosa, and 98.03% for C. neoformans. Moreover, in the protein leakage assay, the quantity of cellular protein discharged from E. coli was 180.25 µg/mL after treatment with 1.0 mg/mL of compound 3l, which explains the creation of holes in the cell membrane of E. coli and proves compound 3l's antibacterial and antibiofilm properties. Additionally, in silico ADME prediction analyses of compounds 3c, 3d, and 3l revealed promising results, indicating the presence of drug-like properties.

3D-QSAR, Molecular Docking and Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa LpxC Inhibitors

As an important target for the development of novel antibiotics, UDP-3-O-(R-3-hydroxymyristoyl)-N-acetylglucosamine deacetylase (LpxC) has been widely studied. Pyridone methylsulfone hydroxamate (PMH) compounds can effectively inhibit the catalytic activity of LpxC. In this work, the three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationships of PMH inhibitors were explored and models with good predictive ability were established using comparative molecular field analysis and comparative molecular similarity index analysis methods. The effect of PMH inhibitors' electrostatic potential on the inhibitory ability of Pseudomonas aeruginosa LpxC (PaLpxC) is revealed at the molecular level via molecular electrostatic potential analyses. Then, two molecular dynamics simulations for the PaLpxC and PaLpxC-inhibitor systems were also performed respectively to investigate the key residues of PaLpxC hydrolase binding to water molecules. The results indicate that orderly alternative water molecules can form stable hydrogen bonds with M62, E77, T190, and H264 in the catalytic center, and tetracoordinate to zinc ion along with H78, H237, and D241. It was found that the conformational transition space of PaLpxC changes after association with PMH inhibitors through free energy landscape and cluster analyses. Finally, a possible inhibitory mechanism of PMH inhibitors was proposed, based on our molecular simulation. This paper will provide a theoretical basis for the molecular design of LpxC-targeting antibiotics.