In-silico modeling of a novel OXA-51 from β-lactam-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii and its interaction with various antibiotics

Acinetobacter baumannii, one of the major Gram negative bacteria, causes nosocomial infections such as pneumonia, urinary tract infection, meningitis, etc. beta-lactam-based antibiotics like penicillin are used conventionally to treat infections of A. baumannii; however, they are becoming progressively less effective as the bacterium produces diverse types of beta-lactamases to inactivate the antibiotics. We have recently identified a novel beta-lactamase, OXA-51 from clinical strains of A. baumannii from our hospital. In the present study, we generated the structure of OXA-51 using MODELLER9v7 and studied the interaction of OXA-51 with a number of beta-lactams (penicillin, oxacillin, ceftazidime, aztreonam and imipenem) using two independent programs: GLIDE and GOLD. Based on the results of different binding parameters and number of hydrogen bonds, interaction of OXA-51 was found to be maximum with ceftazidime and lowest with imipenem. Further, molecular dynamics simulation results also support this fact. The lowest binding affinity of imipenem to OXA-51 indicates clearly that it is not efficiently cleaved by OXA-51, thus explaining its high potency against resistant A. baumannii. This finding is supported by experimental results from minimum inhibitory concentration analysis and transmission electron microscopy. It can be concluded that carbapenems (imipenem) are presently effective beta-lactam antibiotics against resistant strains of A. baumannii harbouring OXA-51. The results presented here could be useful in designing more effective derivatives of carbapenem.