Identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis CtpF as a target for designing new antituberculous compounds

The emergence of tuberculosis (TB) produced by multi-drug resistance (MDR) and extensively-drug resistance (XDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), encourages the development of new antituberculous compounds, as well as the identification of novel drug targets. In this regard, plasma membrane P-type ATPases are interesting targets because they play a crucial role in ion homeostasis and mycobacterial survival. We focused on Mtb CtpF, a calcium P-type ATPase that responds to a broad number of intraphagosomal conditions, as a novel target. In this study, we evaluated the capacity of cyclopiazonic acid (CPA), a well-known inhibitor of the sarco-endoplasmic reticulum Ca²⁺-ATPase (SERCA), to inhibit the ATPase activity of CtpF and the Mtb growth demonstrating that CtpF is a druggable target. A homology modeling of CtpF was generated for molecular docking studies of CtpF with CPA and key pharmacophoric features were identified, which were used to perform a pharmacophore-based virtual screening of the ZINC database, and to identify CtpF inhibitor candidates. Molecular docking-based virtual screening and MM-BGSA calculations of candidates allowed identifying six compounds with the best binding energies. The compounds displayed in vitro minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) ranging from 50 to 100 μg/mL, growth inhibitions from 29.5 to 64.0% on Mtb, and inhibitions of Ca²⁺-dependent ATPase activity in Mtb membrane vesicles (IC₅₀) ranging from 4.1 to 35.8 μM. The compound ZINC63908257 was the best candidate by displaying a MIC of 50 μg/mL and a Ca²⁺ P-type ATPase inhibition of 45% with IC₅₀ = 4.4 μM. Overall, the results indicate that CtpF is a druggable target for designing new antituberculous compounds.