Recent advances in Fragment-based strategies against tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis remains one of the world's leading infectious disease killers, causing more than 1.5 million of deaths each year. It is therefore a priority to discover and develop new classes of anti-tuberculosis drugs to design new treatments in order to fight the increasing burden of resistant-tuberculosis. Fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) relies on the identification of small molecule hits, further improved to high-affinity ligands through three main approaches: fragment growing, merging and linking. The aim of this review is to highlight the recent progresses made in fragment-based approaches for the discovery and development of Mycobacterium tuberculosis inhibitors in a wide range of pathways. Hit discovery, hit-to-lead optimization, SAR and binding mode when available are discussed.

Rapid and Efficient Access to Novel Bio-Inspired 3-Dimensional Tricyclic SpiroLactams as Privileged Structures via Meyers' Lactamization.

The concept of privileged structure has been used as a fruitful approach for the discovery of novel biologically active molecules. A privileged structure is defined as a semi-rigid scaffold able to display substituents in multiple spatial directions and capable of providing potent and selective ligands for different biological targets through the modification of those substituents. On average, these backbones tend to exhibit improved drug-like properties and therefore represent attractive starting points for hit-to-lead optimization programs. This article promotes the rapid, reliable, and efficient synthesis of novel, highly 3-dimensional, and easily functionalized bio-inspired tricyclic spirolactams, as well as an analysis of their drug-like properties.

Exploring the Antitubercular Activity of Anthranilic Acid Derivatives: From MabA (FabG1) Inhibition to Intrabacterial Acidification.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the pathogen that causes tuberculosis, is responsible for the death of 1.5 million people each year and the number of bacteria resistant to the standard regimen is constantly increasing. This highlights the need to discover molecules that act on new M. tuberculosis targets. Mycolic acids, which are very long-chain fatty acids essential for M. tuberculosis viability, are synthesized by two types of fatty acid synthase (FAS) systems. MabA (FabG1) is an essential enzyme belonging to the FAS-II cycle. We have recently reported the discovery of anthranilic acids as MabA inhibitors. Here, the structure-activity relationships around the anthranilic acid core, the binding of a fluorinated analog to MabA by NMR experiments, the physico-chemical properties and the antimycobacterial activity of these inhibitors were explored. Further investigation of the mechanism of action in bacterio showed that these compounds affect other targets than MabA in mycobacterial cells and that their antituberculous activity is due to the carboxylic acid moiety which induces intrabacterial acidification.

Tricyclic SpiroLactams Kill Mycobacteria In Vitro and In Vivo by Inhibiting Type II NADH Dehydrogenases.

It is critical that novel classes of antituberculosis drugs are developed to combat the increasing burden of infections by multidrug-resistant strains. To identify such a novel class of antibiotics, a chemical library of unique 3-D bioinspired molecules was explored revealing a promising, mycobacterium specific Tricyclic SpiroLactam (TriSLa) hit. Chemical optimization of the TriSLa scaffold delivered potent analogues with nanomolar activity against replicating and nonreplicating Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Characterization of isolated TriSLa-resistant mutants, and biochemical studies, found TriSLas to act as allosteric inhibitors of type II NADH dehydrogenases (Ndh-2 of the electron transport chain), resulting in an increase in bacterial NADH/NAD+ ratios and decreased ATP levels. TriSLas are chemically distinct from other inhibitors of Ndh-2 but share a dependence for fatty acids for activity. Finally, in vivo proof-of-concept studies showed TriSLas to protect zebrafish larvae from Mycobacterium marinum infection, suggesting a vulnerability of Ndh-2 inhibition in mycobacterial infections.

On the Hunt for Next-Generation Antimicrobial Agents: An Online Symposium Organized Jointly by the French Society for Medicinal Chemistry (Société de Chimie Thérapeutique) and the French Microbiology Society (Société Française de Microbiologie) on 9-10 December 2021.

The restrictions posed by the COVID-19 pandemic obliged the French Society for Medicinal Chemistry (Société de chimie thérapeutique) and the French Microbiology Society (Société Française de Microbiologie) to organize their joint autumn symposium (entitled "On the hunt for next-generation antimicrobial agents") online on 9-10 December 2021. The meeting attracted more than 200 researchers from France and abroad with interests in drug discovery, antimicrobial resistance, medicinal chemistry, and related disciplines. This review summarizes the 13 invited keynote lectures. The symposium generated high-level scientific dialogue on the most recent advances in combating antimicrobial resistance. The University of Lille, the Institut Pasteur de Lille, the journal Pharmaceuticals, Oxeltis, and INCATE, sponsored the event.

Discovery of the first Mycobacterium tuberculosis MabA (FabG1) inhibitors through a fragment-based screening.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), the etiologic agent of tuberculosis, remains the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent worldwide. The emergence of drug-resistant M.tb strains stresses the need for drugs acting on new targets. Mycolic acids are very long chain fatty acids playing an essential role in the architecture and permeability of the mycobacterial cell wall. Their biosynthesis involves two fatty acid synthase (FAS) systems. Among the four enzymes (MabA, HadAB/BC, InhA and KasA/B) of the FAS-II cycle, MabA (FabG1) remains the only one for which specific inhibitors have not been reported yet. The development of a new LC-MS/MS based enzymatic assay allowed the screening of a 1280 fragment-library and led to the discovery of the first small molecules that inhibit MabA activity. A fragment from the anthranilic acid series was optimized into more potent inhibitors and their binding to MabA was confirmed by 19F ligand-observed NMR experiments.