1. Academic Validation
  2. Pyridylpiperazine-based allosteric inhibitors of RND-type multidrug efflux pumps

Pyridylpiperazine-based allosteric inhibitors of RND-type multidrug efflux pumps

  • Nat Commun. 2022 Jan 10;13(1):115. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-27726-2.
Coline Plé # 1 Heng-Keat Tam # 2 3 Anais Vieira Da Cruz 4 Nina Compagne 4 Juan-Carlos Jiménez-Castellanos 1 Reinke T Müller 2 Elizabeth Pradel 1 Wuen Ee Foong 2 Giuliano Malloci 5 Alexia Ballée 4 Moritz A Kirchner 2 Parisa Moshfegh 4 Adrien Herledan 4 Andrea Herrmann 2 Benoit Deprez 4 Nicolas Willand 4 Attilio Vittorio Vargiu 5 Klaas M Pos 6 Marion Flipo 7 Ruben C Hartkoorn 8
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Univ. Lille, CNRS, Inserm, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur Lille, U1019-UMR 9017-CIIL-Center for Infection and Immunity of Lille, F-59000, Lille, France.
  • 2 Institute of Biochemistry, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Max-von-Laue-Str. 9, D-60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
  • 3 Hengyang Medical School, University of South China, 421002, Hengyang, Hunan Province, China.
  • 4 Univ. Lille, Inserm, Institut Pasteur de Lille, U1177-Drugs and Molecules for Living Systems, F-59000, Lille, France.
  • 5 Department of Physics, University of Cagliari, 09042, Monserrato (Cagliari), Italy.
  • 6 Institute of Biochemistry, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Max-von-Laue-Str. 9, D-60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. pos@em.uni-frankfurt.de.
  • 7 Univ. Lille, Inserm, Institut Pasteur de Lille, U1177-Drugs and Molecules for Living Systems, F-59000, Lille, France. marion.flipo@univ-lille.fr.
  • 8 Univ. Lille, CNRS, Inserm, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur Lille, U1019-UMR 9017-CIIL-Center for Infection and Immunity of Lille, F-59000, Lille, France. ruben.hartkoorn@inserm.fr.
  • # Contributed equally.
Abstract

Efflux transporters of the RND family confer resistance to multiple Antibiotics in Gram-negative bacteria. Here, we identify and chemically optimize pyridylpiperazine-based compounds that potentiate Antibiotic activity in E. coli through inhibition of its primary RND transporter, AcrAB-TolC. Characterisation of resistant E. coli mutants and structural biology analyses indicate that the compounds bind to a unique site on the transmembrane domain of the AcrB L protomer, lined by key catalytic residues involved in proton relay. Molecular dynamics simulations suggest that the inhibitors access this binding pocket from the cytoplasm via a channel exclusively present in the AcrB L protomer. Thus, our work unveils a class of allosteric efflux-pump inhibitors that likely act by preventing the functional catalytic cycle of the RND pump.

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