[Scaffold hopping computational approach for searching novel ß-lactamase inhibitors]. / Virtual'nyi skrining s ispol'zovaniem izmeneniia strukturnogo ostova ligandov dlia poiska novykh ingibitorov ß-laktamaz.

We present a novel computational ligand-based virtual screening approach with scaffold hopping capabilities for the identification of novel inhibitors of ß-lactamases which confer bacterial resistance to ß-lactam antibiotics. The structures of known ß-lactamase inhibitors were used as query ligands, and a virtual in silico screening a database of 8 million drug-like compounds was performed in order to select the ligands with similar shape and charge distribution. A set of numerical descriptors was used such as chirality, eigen spectrum of matrices of interatomic distances and connectivity together with higher order moment invariants that showed their efficiency in the field of pattern recognition but have not yet been employed in drug discovery. The developed scaffold-hopping approach was applied for the discovery of analogues of four allosteric inhibitors of serine ß-lactamases. After a virtual in silico screening, the effect of two selected ligands on the activity of TEM type ß-lactamase was studied experimentally. New non-ß-lactam inhibitors were found that showed more effective inhibition of ß-lactamases compared to query ligands.

Novel non-ß-lactam inhibitor of ß-lactamase TEM-171 based on acylated phenoxyaniline.

The microbial resistance to antibiotics is a genuine global threat. Consequently, a search of new inhibitors remains of acute importance due to the increasing spread of multidrug resistance. Here we present a new type of non-ß-lactam ß-lactamase inhibitor PA-34 based on natural phenoxyaniline, identified using computer-assisted screening of scaffolds related to those of known low-affinity inhibitors. The compound displays reversible competitive inhibition of bacterial ß-lactamase TEM-171, with a Ki of 88 µM. Using enzyme kinetics, infra-red spectroscopy, fluorescence quenching and computer docking, we propose that the inhibitor binds at the entrance to the enzyme active site. This is a novel inhibition mechanism compared to binding covalently to the catalytic serine in the active site or non-covalently to the allosteric site. The residues involved in binding the inhibitor are conserved among molecular class A ß-lactamases. The identified compound and its proposed binding mode may have a potential for a regulation of the catalytic activity of a wide range of class A ß-lactamases. We also hypothesise that the presented route for finding non-ß-lactam compounds may be an effective and durable approach for combating bacterial antibiotic resistance.

[A microscopic model of complex formation of intercalators with DNA: analysis of NMR spectroscopy data].

A model of intercalation complex formation of ligands with an arbitrary oligonucleotide sequence has been proposed, which takes in the explicit form the microscopic constants and the parameters of the cooperativity of binding to particular sites of the oligomer into account. The model has been adapted for the analysis of NMR spectroscopy data.