Molecular Modelling Study and Antibacterial Evaluation of Diphenylmethane Derivatives as Potential FabI Inhibitors

The need for new antibiotics has become a major worldwide challenge as bacterial strains keep developing resistance to the existing drugs at an alarming rate. Enoyl-acyl carrier protein reductases (FabI) play a crucial role in lipids and fatty acid biosynthesis, which are essential for the integrity of the bacterial cell membrane. Our study aimed to discover small FabI inhibitors in continuation to our previously found hit MN02. The process was initially started by conducting a similarity search to the NCI ligand database using MN02 as a query. Accordingly, ten compounds were chosen for the computational assessment and antimicrobial testing. Most of the compounds showed an antibacterial activity against Gram-positive strains, while RK10 exhibited broad-spectrum activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. All tested compounds were then docked into the saFabI active site followed by 100 ns MD simulations (Molecular Dynamics) and MM-GBSA (Molecular Mechanics with Generalised Born and Surface Area Solvation) calculations in order to understand their fitting and estimate their binding energies. Interestingly, and in line with the experimental data, RK10 was able to exhibit the best fitting with the target catalytic pocket. To sum up, RK10 is a small compound with leadlike characteristics that can indeed act as a promising candidate for the future development of broad-spectrum antibacterial agents.

Automated summary

The need for new antibiotics is a global challenge due to increasing bacterial resistance. Our study aimed to discover small inhibitors for FabI, which plays a crucial role in bacterial cell membrane integrity. After conducting a similarity search using a known hit, MN02, ten compounds were selected for computational assessment and antimicrobial testing. Among them, RK10 showed broad-spectrum activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and exhibited the best fitting with the target catalytic pocket. Overall, RK10 is a promising candidate for the development of broad-spectrum antibacterial agents.