In Silico Identification and Experimental Validation of Peptide-Based Inhibitors Targeting Clostridium difficile Toxin A

ACS Chem Biol. 2022 Jan 21;17(1):118-128. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.1c00743. Epub 2021 Dec 29.

Abstract

Clostridium difficile infection is mediated by two major exotoxins: toxins A (TcdA) and B (TcdB). Inhibiting the biocatalytic activities of these toxins with targeted peptide-based drugs can reduce the risk of C. difficile infection. In this work, we used a computational strategy that integrates a peptide binding design (PepBD) algorithm and explicit-solvent atomistic molecular dynamics simulation to determine promising toxin A-targeting peptides that can recognize and bind to the catalytic site of the TcdA glucosyltransferase domain (GTD). Our simulation results revealed that two out of three in silico discovered peptides, viz. the neutralizing peptides A (NPA) and B (NPB), exhibit lower binding free energies when bound to the TcdA GTD than the phage-display discovered peptide, viz. the reference peptide (RP). These peptides may serve as potential inhibitors against C. difficile infection. The efficacy of the peptides RP, NPA, and NPB to neutralize the cytopathic effects of TcdA was tested in vitro in human jejunum cells. Both phage-display peptide RP and in silico peptide NPA were found to exhibit strong toxin-neutralizing properties, thereby preventing the TcdA toxicity. However, the in silico peptide NPB demonstrates a relatively low efficacy against TcdA.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Bacterial Toxins / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Bacterial Toxins / chemistry
  • Computer Simulation*
  • Drug Design
  • Enterotoxins / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Enterotoxins / chemistry
  • Models, Molecular
  • Peptides / chemistry
  • Peptides / pharmacology*
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Conformation
  • Protein Domains
  • Reproducibility of Results

Substances

  • Bacterial Toxins
  • Enterotoxins
  • Peptides
  • tcdA protein, Clostridium difficile