Discovery of novel new Delhi metallo-β-lactamases-1 inhibitors by multistep virtual screening

PLoS One. 2015 Mar 3;10(3):e0118290. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0118290. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

The emergence of NDM-1 containing multi-antibiotic resistant "Superbugs" necessitates the needs of developing of novel NDM-1inhibitors. In this study, we report the discovery of novel NDM-1 inhibitors by multi-step virtual screening. From a 2,800,000 virtual drug-like compound library selected from the ZINC database, we generated a focused NDM-1 inhibitor library containing 298 compounds of which 44 chemical compounds were purchased and evaluated experimentally for their ability to inhibit NDM-1 in vitro. Three novel NDM-1 inhibitors with micromolar IC50 values were validated. The most potent inhibitor, VNI-41, inhibited NDM-1 with an IC50 of 29.6 ± 1.3 μM. Molecular dynamic simulation revealed that VNI-41 interacted extensively with the active site. In particular, the sulfonamide group of VNI-41 interacts directly with the metal ion Zn1 that is critical for the catalysis. These results demonstrate the feasibility of applying virtual screening methodologies in identifying novel inhibitors for NDM-1, a metallo-β-lactamase with a malleable active site and provide a mechanism base for rational design of NDM-1 inhibitors using sulfonamide as a functional scaffold.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / chemistry*
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / metabolism
  • Binding Sites
  • Catalytic Domain
  • Databases, Factual
  • Drug Evaluation, Preclinical
  • Enzyme Inhibitors / chemistry*
  • Enzyme Inhibitors / metabolism
  • Molecular Docking Simulation
  • Protein Binding
  • Recombinant Proteins / biosynthesis
  • Recombinant Proteins / chemistry
  • Recombinant Proteins / isolation & purification
  • Sulfonamides / chemistry*
  • Sulfonamides / metabolism
  • beta-Lactamases / chemistry*
  • beta-Lactamases / genetics
  • beta-Lactamases / metabolism

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • Enzyme Inhibitors
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Sulfonamides
  • VNI-41 compound
  • beta-Lactamases
  • beta-lactamase NDM-1

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No: 81302795 and No: 81328023). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.