Structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis phosphopantetheine adenylyltransferase in complex with the feedback inhibitor CoA reveals only one active-site conformation

Structural Characterization of Mycobacterium abscessus Phosphopantetheine Adenylyl Transferase Ligand Interactions: Implications for Fragment-Based Drug Design

Anti-microbial resistance is a rising global healthcare concern that needs urgent attention as growing number of infections become difficult to treat with the currently available antibiotics. This is particularly true for mycobacterial infections like tuberculosis and leprosy and those with emerging opportunistic pathogens such as Mycobacterium abscessus, where multi-drug resistance leads to increased healthcare cost and mortality. M. abscessus is a highly drug-resistant non-tuberculous mycobacterium which causes life-threatening infections in people with chronic lung conditions such as cystic fibrosis. In this study, we explore M. abscessus phosphopantetheine adenylyl transferase (PPAT), an enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of Coenzyme A, as a target for the development of new antibiotics. We provide structural insights into substrate and feedback inhibitor binding modes of M. abscessus PPAT, thereby setting the basis for further chemical exploration of the enzyme. We then utilize a multi-dimensional fragment screening approach involving biophysical and structural analysis, followed by evaluation of compounds from a previous fragment-based drug discovery campaign against M. tuberculosis PPAT ortholog. This allowed the identification of an early-stage lead molecule exhibiting low micro molar affinity against M. abscessus PPAT (K_d 3.2 ± 0.8 µM) and potential new ways to design inhibitors against this enzyme. The resulting crystal structures reveal striking conformational changes and closure of solvent channel of M. abscessus PPAT hexamer providing novel strategies of inhibition. The study thus validates the ligandability of M. abscessus PPAT as an antibiotic target and identifies crucial starting points for structure-guided drug discovery against this bacterium.

Vitamin in the Crosshairs: Targeting Pantothenate and Coenzyme A Biosynthesis for New Antituberculosis Agents

Despite decades of dedicated research, there remains a dire need for new drugs against tuberculosis (TB). Current therapies are generations old and problematic. Resistance to these existing therapies results in an ever-increasing burden of patients with disease that is difficult or impossible to treat. Novel chemical entities with new mechanisms of action are therefore earnestly required. The biosynthesis of coenzyme A (CoA) has long been known to be essential in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of TB. The pathway has been genetically validated by seminal studies in vitro and in vivo. In Mtb, the CoA biosynthetic pathway is comprised of nine enzymes: four to synthesize pantothenate (Pan) from l-aspartate and α-ketoisovalerate; five to synthesize CoA from Pan and pantetheine (PantSH). This review gathers literature reports on the structure/mechanism, inhibitors, and vulnerability of each enzyme in the CoA pathway. In addition to traditional inhibition of a single enzyme, the CoA pathway offers an antimetabolite strategy as a promising alternative. In this review, we provide our assessment of what appear to be the best targets, and, thus, which CoA pathway enzymes present the best opportunities for antitubercular drug discovery moving forward.

The coenzyme A biosynthetic pathway: A new tool for prodrug bioactivation

Prodrugs account for more than 5% of pharmaceuticals approved worldwide. Over the past decades several prodrug design strategies have been firmly established; however, only a few functional groups remain amenable to this approach. The aim of this overview is to highlight the use of coenzyme A (CoA) biosynthetic enzymes as a recently explored bioactivation scheme and provide information about its scope of utility. This emerging tool is likely to have a strong impact on future medicinal and biological studies as it offers promiscuity, orthogonal selectivity, and the capability of assembling exceptionally large molecules.

Structural Biology and the Design of New Therapeutics: From HIV and Cancer to Mycobacterial Infections: A Paper Dedicated to John Kendrew

Interest in applications of protein crystallography to medicine was evident, as the first high-resolution structures emerged in the 50s and 60s. In Cambridge, Max Perutz and John Kendrew sought to understand mutations in sickle cell and other genetic diseases related to hemoglobin, while in Oxford, the group of Dorothy Hodgkin became interested in long-lasting zinc-insulin crystals for treatment of diabetes and later considered insulin redesign, as synthetic insulins became possible. The use of protein crystallography in structure-guided drug discovery emerged as enzyme structures allowed the identification of potential inhibitor-binding sites and optimization of interactions of hits using the structure of the target protein. Early examples of this approach were the use of the structure of renin to design antihypertensives and the structure of HIV protease in design of AIDS antivirals. More recently, use of structure-guided design with fragment-based drug discovery, which reduces the size of screening libraries by decreasing complexity, has improved ligand efficiency in drug design and has been used to progress three oncology drugs through clinical trials to FDA approval. We exemplify current developments in structure-guided target identification and fragment-based lead discovery with efforts to develop new antimicrobials for mycobacterial infections.

X-ray study of the conformational changes in the molecule of phosphopantetheine adenylyltransferase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis during the catalyzed reaction

Structures of recombinant phosphopantetheine adenylyltransferase (PPAT) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (PPATMt) in the apo form and in complex with the substrate ATP were determined at 1.62 and 1.70 Å resolution, respectively, using crystals grown in microgravity by the counter-diffusion method. The ATP molecule of the PPATMt-ATP complex was located with full occupancy in the active-site cavity. Comparison of the solved structures with previously determined structures of PPATMt complexed with the reaction product dephosphocoenzyme A (dPCoA) and the feedback inhibitor coenzyme A (CoA) was performed using superposition on C(α) atoms. The peculiarities of the arrangement of the ligands in the active-site cavity of PPATMt are described. The conformational states of the PPAT molecule in the consequent steps of the catalyzed reaction in the apo enzyme and the enzyme-substrate and enzyme-product complexes are characterized. It is shown that the binding of ATP and dPCoA induces the rearrangement of a short part of the polypeptide chain restricting the active-site cavity in the subunits of the hexameric enzyme molecule. The changes in the quaternary structure caused by this rearrangement are accompanied by a variation of the size of the inner water-filled channel which crosses the PPAT molecule along the threefold axis of the hexamer. The molecular mechanism of the observed changes is described.