Drug resistance mechanism of PncA in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Tuberculosis continues to be a global health threat. Pyrazinamide (PZA) is an important first- line drug in multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatment. The emergence of strains resistant to PZA represents an important public health problem, as both first- and second- line treatment regimens include PZA. It becomes toxic to Mycobacterium tuberculosis when converted to pyrazinoic acid by the bacterial pyrazinamidase (PncA) enzyme. Resistance to PZA is caused mainly by the loss of enzyme activity by mutation, the mechanism of resistance is not completely understood. In our studies, we analysed three mutations (D8G, S104R and C138Y) of PncA which are involved in resistance towards PZA. Binding pocket analysis solvent accessibility analysis, molecular docking and interaction analysis were performed to understand the interaction behaviour of mutant enzymes with PZA. Molecular dynamics simulations were conducted to understand the three- dimensional (3D) conformational behaviour of native and mutants PncA. Our analysis clearly indicates that the mutation (D8G, S104R and C138Y) in PncA is responsible for rigid binding cavity which in turn abolishes conversion of PZA to its active form and is the sole reason for PZA resistance. Excessive hydrogen bonding between PZA binding cavity residues and their neighbouring residues are the reason of rigid binding cavity during simulation. We present an exhaustive analysis of the binding site flexibility and its 3D conformations that may serve as new starting points for structure- based drug design and helps the researchers to design new inhibitors with consideration of rigid criterion of binding residues due to mutation of this essential target.