Molecular modeling and docking analysis of beta-lactamases with inhibitors: a comparative study

Beta-lactamases are bacterial enzymes which impart resistance against β-lactam-antibiotics. CTX-Ms are the β-lactamases that target cephalosporin antibiotics (e.g. cefotaxime and ceftazidime) while SME-1, KPC-2, IMI-1 and SFC-1 target carbapenems. Clavulanic acid, sulbactam and tazobactam are traditional β-lactamase inhibitors while LN1-255 and NXL-104 whereas novel inhibitors, inhibiting the activity of these enzymes. Studying the binding pattern of these drugs is helpful in predicting the versatile inhibitors for betalactamases. The aims of the study were: describing the mode of interaction of CTX-M (modeled from the blaCTX-M gene of this study) and the said carbapenemases with their respective target drugs and inhibitors and to perform an in silico comparison of the efficacies of traditional and novel β-lactamase-inhibitors based on fitness score. The blaCTX-M marker was PCR-amplified from plasmid DNA of E. coli strain isolated from community-acquired urinary tract infection. E. coli C600 cells (harboring cloned blaCTX-M) were found positive for extended-spectrum-β-lactamase (ESBL) production by the double-disk-synergy test. The three dimensional structures of CTX-M-15, SME-1 and IMI-1 were predicted by Swiss Model Server. The interaction between selected structures and inhibitors was performed by GOLD 5.0. On the basis of the docking score and binding pattern, we conclude that compound LN1-255 followed by tazobactam is best inhibitor against all the selected target enzymes as compared to clavulanate, sulbactam and NXL-104. Five conserved amino acids, Ser70, Ser130, Lys235, Thr236 and Gly237 were found crucial in stabilizing the complexes through hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions.