The Effects of One-Point Mutation on the New Delhi Metallo Beta-Lactamase-1 Resistance toward Carbapenem Antibiotics and β-Lactamase Inhibitors: An In Silico Systematic Approach

Antibiotic resistance has been becoming more and more critical due to bacteria's evolving hydrolysis enzymes. The NDM-1 enzyme could hydrolyze not only carbapenems but also most of beta-lactam's antibiotics and inhibitors. In fact, variant strains could impose a high impact on the resistance of bacteria producing NDM-1. Although previous studies showed the effect of some variants toward antibiotics and inhibitors binding, there has been no research systematically evaluating the effects of alternative one-point mutations on the hydrolysis capacity of NDM-1. This study aims to identify which mutants could increase or decrease the effectiveness of antibiotics and beta-lactamase inhibitors toward bacteria. Firstly, 35 different variants with a high probability of emergence based on the PAM-1 matrix were constructed and then docked with 5 ligands, namely d-captopril, l-captopril, thiorphan, imipenem, and meropenem. The selected complexes underwent molecular dynamics simulation and free energy binding estimation, with the results showing that the substitutions at residues 122 and 124 most influenced the binding ability of NDM-1 toward inhibitors and antibiotics. The H122R mutant decreases the binding ability between d-captopril and NDM-1 and diminishes the effectiveness of this antibiotic toward Enterobacteriaceae. However, the H122R mutant has a contrary impact on thiorphan, which should be tested in vitro and in vivo in further experiments.

Automated summary

Antibiotic resistance is becoming more critical due to the evolving hydrolysis enzymes of bacteria, especially the NDM-1 enzyme which can hydrolyze various antibiotics and inhibitors. This study aims to evaluate the influence of different mutations on the effectiveness of antibiotics and beta-lactamase inhibitors, and the results suggest that substitutions at residues 122 and 124 have the most significant impact on the binding ability of NDM-1 towards inhibitors and antibiotics.