A noncanonical binding site of linezolid revealed via molecular dynamics simulations

Linezolid, an antibiotic of oxazolidinone family, is a translation inhibitor. The mechanism of its action that consists in preventing the binding of aminoacyl-tRNA to the A-site of the large subunit of a ribosome was embraced on the basis of the X-ray structural analysis of the linezolid complexes with vacant bacterial ribosomes. However, the known structures of the linezolid complexes with bacterial ribosomes poorly explain the linezolid selectivity in suppression of protein biosynthesis, depending on the amino acid sequence of the nascent peptide. In the present study the most probable structure of the linezolid complex with a E. coli ribosome in the A,A/P,P-state that is in line with the results of biochemical studies of linezolid action has been obtained by molecular dynamics simulation methods.