Insights into nucleoside hydrolase from Leishmania donovani inhibition: A new bioaffinity chromatography-based screening assay and docking studies

Leishmaniasis, a group of neglected infectious diseases, encompasses a serious health concern, particularly with visceral leishmaniasis exhibiting potentially fatal outcomes. Nucleoside hydrolase (NH) has a fundamental role in the purine salvage pathway, crucial for Leishmania donovani survival, and presents a promising target for developing new drugs for visceral leishmaniasis treatment. In this study, LdNH was immobilized into fused silica capillaries, resulting in immobilized enzyme reactors (IMERs). The LdNH-IMER activity was monitored on-flow in a multidimensional liquid chromatography system, with the IMER in the first dimension. A C18 analytical column in the second dimension furnished the rapid separation of the substrate (inosine) and product (hypoxanthine), enabling direct enzyme activity monitoring through product quantification. LdNH-IMER exhibited high stability and was characterized by determining the Michaelis-Menten constant. A known inhibitor (1-(β-d-Ribofuranosyl)-4-quinolone derivative) was used as a model to validate the established method in inhibitor recognition. Screening of three additional derivatives of 1-(β-d-Ribofuranosyl)-4-quinolone led to the discovery of novel inhibitors, with compound 2a exhibiting superior inhibitory activity (Ki = 23.37 ± 3.64 µmol/L) compared to the employed model inhibitor. Docking and Molecular Dynamics studies provided crucial insights into inhibitor interactions at the enzyme active site, offering valuable information for developing new LdNH inhibitors. Therefore, this study presents a novel screening assay and contributes to the development of potent LdNH inhibitors.

Topological analysis and reactivity study of monomeric and dimeric forms of 2-methyl-4(1H)-quinolone: a computational study

CONTEXT

Quinolone derivatives have gathered major attention largely due to their wonderful biological activities. Quinolones are a class of molecules that are derived from quinolines and also extracted from natural sources. Most of these quinolones have significant medicinal properties ranging from antiallergenic and anticancer to antimicrobial activities. Some bacteria produce several 2-alkyl-4(1H)-quinolones. In past years, a variety of methods have been reported for the synthesis of quinolone derivatives. In this present work, structural, wave functional, and electronic properties of monomeric and dimeric forms of 2-methyl-4(1H)-quinolone are investigated. From the calculated binding energies, it was found that the formation of dimers is thermodynamically favorable. The analysis of reactivity parameters confirms that the keto form is more reactive than the enol form and keto-keto dimer is more reactive than compared to all monomeric and dimeric forms of our studied compound.

METHODS

Geometry optimizations of monomers and dimers of studied molecules were carried out using the B3LYP-D3(BJ)/ma-def2-TZVPP level of theory. The highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energies were calculated using the B3LYP/def2-TZVP level of theory. All DFT calculations were done with the ORCA 5.0.3 program. The reactivity parameters such as ionization potential, electron affinity, global hardness, global softness, electronegativity, chemical potential, and electrophilicity index were calculated. The nature of intermolecular interactions within the dimers was studied using topological analysis such as atoms in molecule (AIM) and reduced density gradient (RDG) surface analyses. To visualize the electron delocalization in the dimer electron localization function (ELF) and localized orbital locator (LOL) studies were also performed. The analyses such as AIM, RDG, ELF, and LOL were carried out by the multifunctional wavefunction analysis program Multiwfn 3.8.

Quinolone derivatives and their activities against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is the most common pathogen both in hospital and community settings, and is capable of causing serious and even fatal infections. Several antibiotics have been approved for the treatment of infections caused by MRSA, but MRSA has already developed resistance to them. More than ever, it's imperative to develop novel, high effective and fast acting anti-MRSA agents. Quinolones are one of the most common antibiotics in clinical practice used to treat various bacterial infections, and some of them displayed excellent in vitro and in vivo anti-MRSA activities, so quinolone derivatives are one of the most promising candidates. This review summarizes the recent developments of quinolone derivatives with potential activity against MRSA, and the structure-activity relationship is also discussed.