Discovery of Novel Putative Inhibitors of UDP-GlcNAc 2-Epimerase as Potent Antibacterial Agents
作者:Yong Xu、Benjamin Brenning、Adrianne Clifford、David Vollmer、Jared Bearss、Carissa Jones、Virgil McCarthy、Chongtie Shi、Bradley Wolfe、Bhasker Aavula、Steve Warner、David J. Bearss、Michael V. McCullar、Raymond Schuch、Adam Pelzek、Shyam S. Bhaskaran、C. Erec Stebbins、Allan R. Goldberg、Vincent A. Fischetti、Hariprasad Vankayalapati
DOI:10.1021/ml4001936
日期:2013.12.12
We present the discovery and optimization of a novel series of inhibitors of bacterial UDP-N-acetylglucosamine 2-epimerase (called 2-epimerase in this letter). Starting from virtual screening hits, the activity of various inhibitory molecules was optimized using a combination of structure-based and rational design approaches. We successfully designed and identified a 2-epimerase inhibitor (compound 12-ES-Na, that we named Epimerox), which blocked the growth of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at 3.9 mu M MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) and showed potent broad range activity against all Gram-positive bacteria that were tested. Additionally a microplate coupled assay was performed to further confirm that the 2-epimerase inhibition of Epimerox was through a target specific mechanism. Furthermore, Epimerox demonstrated in vivo efficacy and had a pharmacokinetic profile that is consonant with it being developed into a promising new antibiotic agent for treatment of infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria.