The increasing incidence of bacterial resistance to most available antibiotics has made the discovery of novel efficacious antibacterial agents urgent. In this process, previously unexploited targets are being considered. As an essential bacterial component unique to prokaryotic cells, peptidoglycan is traditionally an optimal target with respect to selective toxicity. Four ADP-forming bacterial ligases – MurC, MurD, MurE, and MurF – are involved in the intracellular phase of peptidoglycan assembly, catalyzing the synthesis of a peptide moiety by consecutive addition of the amino acids to the starting UDP-precursor (UDP-MurNAc). Among them the MurD (UDP-N-acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine:Dglutamate ligase) catalyses a highly specific incorporation of the D-glutamate into the cytoplasmic intermediate UDP-N-acetyl-muramoyl-L-alanine (UMA) utilizing ATP hydrolysis to ADP and Pi. In this work by using various molecular modeling methodologies a complex dynamical model for the MurD enzyme from the E. coli bacterial species was derived at the atomic level, taking into consideration all the available experimental observations. Furthermore, in silico structure-based drug design approach was utilized leading to the identification of novel inhibitors of Mur ligase family.
Targeted nanosecond molecular dynamics (TMD) simulations were performed in order to examine the substrate (ATP and UMA) binding process and gain insight into structural changes that occur during the conformational closure of the MurD C-terminal domain into the active conformation. The experimentally determined binding order of the substrates was reproduced by TMD simulations. The key interactions essential for the conformational transitions (amino acid residues: Pro300 in Ar302) and substrate binding were identified. Off-path simulation (OPS) technique, an extension of the established Replica path method (RPATh), was initiated to evaluate the energy pathway of the two TMD-generated C-terminal domain closing pathways. The study established much higher energy demands if the C-terminal domain closing process commenced from the open structure in which this domain is located out-of plane with respect to the N-terminal and central domains (open structure 1EEH) in comparison to the open structure in which the conformational movement is confined to this plane (open structure 1E0D). A hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) molecular modeling approach was utilized, to evaluate three possible reaction pathways leading to the tetrahedral intermediate formation – a frequent drug design starting point. Geometries of the starting structures based on crystallographic experimental data and tetrahedral intermediates were carefully examined together with a role of crucial amino acids and water molecules. The QM/MM replica path method (RPATh) was used to generate the reaction pathways between the starting structures and the corresponding tetrahedral reaction intermediates, producing reaction pathways which were in agreement with in a sequential kinetic mechanism. The D-Glu moiety most likely enters the enzyme reaction in its deprotonated form. Binding free energies were calculated for a series of MurD N-sulphonyl-glutamic acid inhibitors using the Linear Interaction Energy (LIE) method. Analysis of interaction energy revealed non-polar van der Waals interactions as the main driving force for the binding of these inhibitors, and excellent agreement with the experimental free energies was obtained. Analysis of fragment contribution to binding free energies for selected inhibitor moieties (glutamic acid, sulphone amide group, naphthalene moiety and lipophilic tail) in this structural class substantiated the insight into the source of inhibitory activity. Based on the available structural data for the MurD and MurE enzymes (both from E. coli) a virtual screening campaign was performed, combining three-dimensional structure-based pharmacophores and molecular docking calculations, resulting in the identification of a novel class of glutamic acid surrogates - benzene 1,3-dicarboxylic acid derivatives possessing dual MurD and MurE inhibitory activity.
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