Computational assessment and in vitro test of phytochemicals of Usnea aciculifera as potential inhibitors of Escherichia coli efflux pump AcrB
- Author:
- Phan T.-V., Tuong L.-T., Nguyen V.-T.-V., Vo C.-V.T., Tran T.-D., Le M.-T., Nguyen B.G.D., Tran V.-T., Vu T.-T. & Thai K.-M.
- Year:
- 2025
- Journal:
- Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics
- Pages:
- 43(3): 1316–1328
- Url:
- https://doi.org/10.1080/07391102.2023.2291547
Lichens produce secondary metabolites that have many pharmaceutical activities such as antimicrobial,
antioxidant, antiviral, anticancer, antigenotoxic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic activities.
However, there is limited research on their efflux pump inhibitory activities. Twelve phytochemicals
were isolated from Usnea aciculifera, and their activity of AcrAB-TolC efflux pump inhibition was evaluated.
Four potential compounds, which are diffractaic acid (2), 80 -O- methylstictic acid (5),
3-hydroxy-4-(methoxycarbonyl)-2,5-dimethylphenyl 2,4-dimethoxy-3,6-dimethylbenzoate (8) and
3-hydroxy-4-(methoxycarbonyl)-2,5-dimethylphenyl 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy-3,6-dimethylbenzoate (9),
were found by virtual screening using pharmacophore and 2D-QSAR model. Compound 8 exhibited
AcrB inhibition activity in vitro with an accumulation H33342 percentage compared with untreated
control of 202% at a concentration of 50 mM and increased the antibacterial activity of levofloxacin by
four-fold at a concentration of 200 mM. By molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation,
the binding affinity of depside and depsidone derivatives to AcrB was also clarified. Despite the poor
docking score to the AcrB binding site, compound 8 was the most stable among the four complexes
at 20 ns of MD simulation. The analysis of long MD at 100 ns indicated that compound 8 interacts
strongly with the residues in the distal pocket, creating a stable complex with DGbind of
231.51 kcal.mol-1. According to the ADMETlab 2.0 web server’s predictions of pharmacokinetics and
toxicities, compound 8 has the potential for drug development.
Keywords: in silico; pump inhibitor;
depside; molecular
dynamics; accumulation
assay; ADMET.
- Id:
- 38304
- Submitter:
- zpalice
- Post_time:
- Wednesday, 04 June 2025 14:33