Identification of Phytochemicals with Inhibitory Potential Against Beta-lactamase Enzymes via Computer-aided Approach

Antibacterial drugs have been widely used for the past century to treat diseases, but their efficacy has been limited by multi-resistant pathogens, particularly those that utilize beta-lactamase enzymes. The inhibition of beta-lactamase enzymes holds great promise for reducing the influence of such pathogens.

This study aims to evaluate the mechanism of inhibition of phytochemicals with antibacterial activity against two classes of beta-lactamases using computational methods.

To achieve this objective, a total of thirty phytochemicals were docked against SHV-1 beta-lactamase and AmpC beta-lactamase after procurement from Protein Data Bank. The pharmacokinetics (ADMET) and density functional theory (DFT) analysis study were also conducted to unravel the nature of the top six most promising compounds on each protein.

The results showed that a significant percentage of the compounds had binding affinities greater than that of avibactam, the positive control. Quercetin-3-O-rutinoside showed the most promising results against SHV-1 beta-lactamase with an affinity of -9.4 kcal/mol, while luteolin was found to be the most promising candidate against AmpC beta-lactamase with an affinity of -8.5 kcal/mol. DFT analysis demonstrated the reactivity of these compounds, and the ADMET study indicated that they were relatively safe.

In conclusion, the study's findings suggest that the selected compounds have significant potential to inhibit beta-lactamase and may be used in combination with antibiotics against organisms that produce beta-lactamase. This study provides a basis for further research in a wet-lab setting to validate the results.