In Silico Study of the Selective Inhibition of Bacterial Peptide Deformylases by Several Drugs

Abstract

To counter increasing levels of pathogen resistance new classes of antibiotics are needed without delay. The metalloenzyme peptide deformylase (PDF) correspond to one of the most promising bacterial targets in the search for novel mode of antibiotics action and was firstly selected as a specific bacterial target. Peptide analogs were developed as inhibitors containing a hydroxamate or formyl- hydroxylamine as metal interacting group, and used as inhibitors with in vitro activity against a broad spectrum of organisms and successful antibacterial activity in vivo that is harmonizing with good pharmacokinetic properties and excellent tolerability in diverse species, but a human homologue was recently discovered. A new strategy for selecting highly efficient compounds with low inhibition effect against human PDF was developed. An original class of small, non-peptidic inhibitors of peptide deformylase (PDF) as potent antibiotics such as indol-group and its derivatives with the same mode of action in vivo as previously identified PDF inhibitors but without the apoptotic effects of these inhibitors in human cells, has been discovered. This study has confirmed the selective action of these compounds on bacterial PDFs by docking method using the autodock program. Indeed, a good correlation between IC50 and deltaG values of different complexes PDF-inhibitors was observed. The evaluation of the various molecular properties of these inhibitors lets us conclude that all these compounds are most likely drugable.