Synthesis and evaluation of boronic acids as inhibitors of Penicillin Binding Proteins of classes A, B and C.

In response to the widespread use of ß-lactam antibiotics bacteria have evolved drug resistance mechanisms that include the production of resistant Penicillin Binding Proteins (PBPs). Boronic acids are potent ß-lactamase inhibitors and have been shown to display some specificity for soluble transpeptidases and PBPs, but their potential as inhibitors of the latter enzymes is yet to be widely explored. Recently, a (2,6-dimethoxybenzamido)methylboronic acid was identified as being a potent inhibitor of Actinomadura sp. R39 transpeptidase (IC(50): 1.3 µM). In this work, we synthesized and studied the potential of a number of acylaminomethylboronic acids as inhibitors of PBPs from different classes. Several derivatives inhibited PBPs of classes A, B and C from penicillin sensitive strains. The (2-nitrobenzamido)methylboronic acid was identified as a good inhibitor of a class A PBP (PBP1b from Streptococcus pneumoniae, IC(50) = 26 µM), a class B PBP (PBP2xR6 from Streptococcus pneumoniae, IC(50) = 138 µM) and a class C PBP (R39 from Actinomadura sp., IC(50) = 0.6 µM). This work opens new avenues towards the development of molecules that inhibit PBPs, and eventually display bactericidal effects, on distinct bacterial species.

Unexpected tricovalent binding mode of boronic acids within the active site of a penicillin-binding protein.

Boronic acids bearing appropriate side chains are good inhibitors of serine amidohydrolases. The boron usually adopts a tetrahedral conformation, bound to the nucleophilic serine of the active site and mimicking the transition state of the enzymatic reaction. We have solved the structures of complexes of a penicillin-binding protein, the DD-peptidase from Actinomadura sp. R39, with four amidomethylboronic acids (2,6-dimethoxybenzamidomethylboronic acid, phenylacetamidomethylboronic acid, 2-chlorobenzamidomethylboronic acid, and 2-nitrobenzamidomethylboronic acid) and the pinacol ester derived from phenylacetamidomethylboronic acid. We found that, in each case, the boron forms a tricovalent adduct with Oγ of Ser49, Ser298, and the terminal amine group of Lys410, three key residues involved in the catalytic mechanism of penicillin-binding proteins. This represents the first tricovalent enzyme-inhibitor adducts observed by crystallography. In two of the five R39-boronate structures, the boronic acid is found as a tricovalent adduct in two monomers of the asymmetric unit and as a monocovalent adduct with the active serine in the two remaining monomers of the asymmetric unit. Formation of the tricovalent complex from a classical monocovalent complex may involve rotation around the Ser49 Cα-Cß bond to place the boron in a position to interact with Ser298 and Lys410, and a twisting of the side-chain amide such that its carbonyl oxygen is able to hydrogen bond to the oxyanion hole NH of Thr413. Biphasic kinetics were observed in three of the five cases, and details of the reaction between R39 and 2,6-dimethoxybenzamidomethylboronic acid were studied. Observation of biphasic kinetics was not, however, thought to be correlated to formation of tricovalent complexes, assuming that the latter do form in solution. On the basis of the crystallographic and kinetic results, a reaction scheme for this unexpected inhibition by boronic acids is proposed.