Drug-target kinetics has recently emerged as an especially important facet of the drug discovery process. In particular, prolonged drug-target residence times may confer enhanced efficacy and selectivity in the open in vivo system. However, the lack of accurate kinetic and structural data for series of congeneric compounds hinders the rational design of inhibitors with decreased off-rates. Therefore, we chose the Staphylococcus aureus enoyl-ACP reductase (saFabI) - an important target for the development of new anti-staphylococcal drugs - as a model system to rationalize and optimize the drug-target residence time on a structural basis. Using our new, efficient and widely applicable mechanistically informed kinetic approach, we obtained a full characterization of saFabI inhibition by a series of 20 diphenyl ethers complemented by a collection of 9 saFabI-inhibitor crystal structures. We identified a strong correlation between the affinities of the investigated saFabI diphenyl ether inhibitors and their corresponding residence times, which can be rationalized on a structural basis. Due to its favorable interactions with the enzyme, the residence time of our most potent compound exceeds 10 hours. In addition, we found that affinity and residence time in this system can be significantly enhanced by modifications predictable by a careful consideration of catalysis. Our study provides a blueprint for investigating and prolonging drug-target kinetics and may aid in the rational design of long-residence-time inhibitors targeting the essential saFabI enzyme.

Slow-onset enzyme inhibitors are of great interest for drug discovery programs since the slow dissociation of the inhibitor from the drug–target complex results in sustained target occupancy leading to improved pharmacodynamics. However, the structural basis for slow-onset inhibition is often not fully understood, hindering the development of structure-kinetic relationships and the rational optimization of drug-target residence time. Previously we demonstrated that slow-onset inhibition of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis enoyl-ACP reductase InhA correlated with motions of a substrate-binding loop (SBL) near the active site. In the present work, X-ray crystallography and molecular dynamics simulations have been used to map the structural and energetic changes of the SBL that occur upon enzyme inhibition. Helix-6 within the SBL adopts an open conformation when the inhibitor structure or binding kinetics is substrate-like. In contrast, slow-onset inhibition results in large-scale local refolding in which helix-6 adopts a closed conformation not normally populated during substrate turnover. The open and closed conformations of helix-6 are hypothesized to represent the EI and EI* states on the two-step induced-fit reaction coordinate for enzyme inhibition. These two states were used as the end points for nudged elastic band molecular dynamics simulations resulting in two-dimensional potential energy profiles that reveal the barrier between EI and EI*, thus rationalizing the binding kinetics observed with different inhibitors. Our findings indicate that the structural basis for slow-onset kinetics can be understood once the structures of both EI and EI* have been identified, thus providing a starting point for the rational control of enzyme–inhibitor binding kinetics.

New chemotherapeutic agents are urgently required to combat the global spread of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). The mycobacterial enoyl reductase, InhA, is one of the few clinically-validated targets in tuberculosis drug discovery. Here, we report the identification of a new class of direct InhA inhibitors, the 4-hydroxy-2-pyridones, using phenotypic high-throughput whole-cell screening. This class of orally-active compounds showed potent bactericidal activity against common isoniazid-resistant TB clinical isolates. Biophysical studies revealed that 4-hydroxy-2-pyridones bound specifically to InhA in an NADH-dependent manner and blocked the enoyl-substrate binding pocket. The lead compound NITD-916 directly blocked InhA in a dose-dependent manner and showed in vivo efficacy in acute and established mouse models of infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Collectively, our structural and biochemical data open up new avenues for rational structure-guided optimization of the 4-hydroxy-2-pyridone class of compounds for the treatment of MDR-TB.

Background:The FabI inhibitor CG400549 is a promising new anti-staphylococcal drug candidate with recently validated human efficacy. Results: We revealed the molecular determinants conferring S. aureus FabI selectivity to rationally design a compound with an improved antibacterial activity spectrum. Conclusion:The 4-pyridone PT166 represents a critical step toward Gram-negative and mycobacterial coverage. Significance: We provide an approach to expand the spectrum of antimicrobial activity.

A critical goal of lead compound selection and optimization is to maximize target engagement whilst minimizing off-target binding. Since target engagement is a function of both the thermodynamics and kinetics of drug-target interactions, it follows that the structures of both the ground states and transition states on the binding reaction coordinate are needed to rationally modulate the lifetime of the drug-target complex. Previously, we predicted the structure of the rate-limiting transition state that controlled the time-dependent inhibition of the enoyl-ACP reductase InhA. This led to the discovery of a triazole-containing diphenyl ether with an increased residence time on InhA due to transition state destabilization rather than ground state stabilization. In the present work, we have evaluated the inhibition of InhA by 14 triazole-based diphenyl ethers and used a combination of enzyme kinetics and X-ray crystallography to generate a structure-kinetic relationship (SKR) for time-dependent binding. We show that the triazole motif slows the rate of formation for the final drug-target complex by up to three orders of magnitude. In addition, we identify a novel inhibitor with a residence time on InhA of 220 min which is 3.5-fold longer than that of the INH-NAD adduct formed by the tuberculosis drug, isoniazid. This study provides a clear example in which the lifetime of the drug-target complex is controlled by interactions in the transition state for inhibitor binding rather than the ground state of the enzyme-inhibitor complex, and demonstrates the important role that on-rates can play in drug-target residence time.

One third of all drugs in clinical use owe their pharmacological activity to the functional inhibition of enzymes, highlighting the importance of enzymatic targets for drug development. Because of the close relationship between inhibition and catalysis, understanding the recognition and turnover of enzymatic substrates is essential for rational drug design. Although the Staphylococcus aureus enoyl-acyl carrier protein reductase (saFabI) involved in bacterial fatty acid biosynthesis constitutes a very promising target for the development of novel, urgently needed anti-staphylococcal agents, the substrate binding mode and catalytic mechanism remained unclear for this enzyme. Using a combined crystallographic, kinetic and computational approach, we have explored the chemical properties of the saFabI binding cavity, obtaining a consistent mechanistic model for substrate binding and turnover. We identified a water-molecule network linking the active site with a water basin inside the homo-tetrameric protein, which seems to be crucial for the closure of the flexible substrate binding loop as well as for an effective hydride and proton transfer during catalysis. Based on our results, we also derive a new model for the FabI-ACP complex that reveals how the ACP-bound acyl-substrate is injected into the FabI binding crevice. These findings support the future development of novel FabI inhibitors that target the FabI-ACP interface leading to the disruption of the interaction between these two proteins.

Slow-onset enzyme inhibitors are the subject of considerable interest as an approach to increase potency of pharmaceutical compounds by extending the residence time of the inhibitor on the target (the lifetime of the drug-receptor complex). However, rational modulation of residence time presents significant challenges since it requires additional mechanistic insight, such as the nature of the transition state for post-binding isomerization. Our previous work, based on X-ray crystallography, enzyme kinetics and molecular dynamics simulation, suggested that the slow step in inhibition of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis enoyl-ACP reductase InhA involves a change in conformation of the substrate binding loop from an open state in the initial enzyme-inhibitor complex to a closed state in the final enzyme-inhibitor complex. Here, we use multidimensional free energy landscapes for loop isomerization to obtain a computational model for the transition state. The results suggest that slow-onset inhibitors crowd key side chains on helices that slide past each other during isomerization, resulting in a steric clash. The landscapes become significantly flatter when residues involved in the steric clash are replaced by alanine. Importantly, this lower barrier can be increased by rational inhibitor redesign to restore the steric clash. Crystallographic studies and enzyme kinetics confirm the predicted effects on loop structure and flexibility, as well as inhibitor residence time. These loss and regain of function studies validate our mechanistic hypothesis for interactions controlling substrate binding loop isomerization, providing a platform for future design of inhibitors with longer residence time and better in vivo potency. Similar opportunities for slow-onset inhibition via the same mechanism are identified in other pathogens.

Isoniazid (INH) is usually administered to treat latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infections, and is used in combination therapy to treat active tuberculosis disease (TB). Unfortunately, resistance to this drug is hampering its clinical effectiveness. INH is a prodrug that must be activated by Mtb catalase peroxidase (KatG) before it can inhibit InhA (Mtb enoyl-acyl-carrier-protein reductase). Isoniazid-resistant cases of TB found in clinical settings usually involve mutations in or deletion of katG, which abrogate INH activation. Compounds that inhibit InhA without requiring prior activation by KatG would not be affected by this resistance mechanism and hence would display continued potency against these drug-resistant isolates of Mtb. Virtual screening experiments versus InhA in the GO Fight Against Malaria project (GO FAM) were designed to discover new scaffolds that display base stacking interactions with the NAD cofactor. GO FAM experiments included targets from other pathogens, including Mtb, when they had structural similarity to a malaria target. Eight of the sixteen soluble compounds identified by docking against InhA plus visual inspection were modest inhibitors and did not require prior activation by KatG. The best two inhibitors discovered are both fragment-sized compounds and displayed Ki values of 54 and 59 μM, respectively. Importantly, the novel inhibitors discovered have low structural similarity to known InhA inhibitors and, thus, help expand the number of chemotypes on which future medicinal chemistry efforts can be focused. These new fragment hits could eventually help advance the fight against INH-resistant Mtb strains, which pose a significant global health threat.