1. Academic Validation
  2. A deep learning-driven discovery of berberine derivatives as novel antibacterial against multidrug-resistant Helicobacter pylori

A deep learning-driven discovery of berberine derivatives as novel antibacterial against multidrug-resistant Helicobacter pylori

  • Signal Transduct Target Ther. 2024 Jul 8;9(1):183. doi: 10.1038/s41392-024-01895-0.
Xixi Guo # 1 Xiaosa Zhao # 2 Xi Lu # 1 Liping Zhao # 1 Qingxuan Zeng 1 Fenbei Chen 1 Zhimeng Zhang 1 Mengyi Xu 1 Shijiao Feng 1 Tianyun Fan 1 Wei Wei 1 Xin Zhang 3 Jing Pang 4 Xuefu You 5 Danqing Song 6 Yanxiang Wang 7 8 Jiandong Jiang 1
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Institute of Medicinal Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, 100050, Beijing, China.
  • 2 School of Information Science and Technology, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130117, China.
  • 3 Department of Pharmacy, Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University, Jining Medical University, Jining, 272029, Shandong, China.
  • 4 Institute of Medicinal Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, 100050, Beijing, China. pangjing@imb.pumc.edu.cn.
  • 5 Institute of Medicinal Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, 100050, Beijing, China. xuefuyou@imb.pumc.edu.cn.
  • 6 Institute of Medicinal Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, 100050, Beijing, China. songdanqing@imb.pumc.edu.cn.
  • 7 Institute of Medicinal Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, 100050, Beijing, China. wangyanxiang@imb.pumc.edu.cn.
  • 8 Institute of Health and Medicine, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, 230601, Anhui, China. wangyanxiang@imb.pumc.edu.cn.
  • # Contributed equally.
Abstract

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is currently recognized as the primary carcinogenic pathogen associated with gastric tumorigenesis, and its high prevalence and resistance make it difficult to tackle. A graph neural network-based deep learning model, employing different training sets of 13,638 molecules for pre-training and fine-tuning, was aided in predicting and exploring novel molecules against H. pylori. A positively predicted novel berberine derivative 8 with 3,13-disubstituted alkene exhibited a potency against all tested drug-susceptible and resistant H. pylori strains with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 0.25-0.5 μg/mL. Pharmacokinetic studies demonstrated an ideal gastric retention of 8, with the stomach concentration significantly higher than its MIC at 24 h post dose. Oral administration of 8 and omeprazole (OPZ) showed a comparable gastric Bacterial reduction (2.2-log reduction) to the triple-therapy, namely OPZ + amoxicillin (AMX) + clarithromycin (CLA) without obvious disturbance on the intestinal flora. A combination of OPZ, AMX, CLA, and 8 could further decrease the bacteria load (2.8-log reduction). More importantly, the mono-therapy of 8 exhibited comparable eradication to both triple-therapy (OPZ + AMX + CLA) and quadruple-therapy (OPZ + AMX + CLA + bismuth citrate) groups. SecA and BamD, playing a major role in outer membrane protein (OMP) transport and assembling, were identified and verified as the direct targets of 8 by employing the chemoproteomics technique. In summary, by targeting the relatively conserved OMPs transport and assembling system, 8 has the potential to be developed as a novel anti-H. pylori candidate, especially for the eradication of drug-resistant strains.

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