Evaluation of the combination mode of azoles antifungal inhibitors with CACYP51 and the influence of Site-directed mutation

Abstract

14α-demethylase (CYP51) is an essential metabolic enzyme for fungal survival and has been considered as an interesting target for the development of new antifungal inhibitors. Azoles antifungal inhibitors in the treatment of fungal diseases are good candidates via the interaction with the target enzyme CYP51 of fungus. In the study, we constructed the homology model for Candida albicans CYP51 (CACYP51) and analyzed the active site. In order to better understand the structural characteristics of azoles inhibitors and combination mode, the common feature pharmacophore model and the molecular docking were performed. The results suggest that the azoles inhibitors consist of three chemical features: the aromatic groups, phenyl groups and the azoles groups. The aromatic groups of inhibitors occupy the upper of active pocket, the phenyl groups and azoles groups occupy the bottom of active pocket. Further validation studies found these amino acid residues Tyr118, His310 and Ser378 play an important role in the substrate binding, and these amino acid residues with site-directed mutation will weaken the combining ability of the inhibitors.