e-Pharmacophore model-guided design of potential DprE1 inhibitors: synthesis, in vitro antitubercular assay and molecular modelling studies

Abstract

Tuberculosis continues to wreak havoc worldwide and caused around 1.4 million deaths in 2019. Hence, in our pursuit of developing novel antitubercular compounds, we are reporting the e-Pharmacophore-based design of DprE1 (decaprenylphosphoryl-ribose 2′-oxidase) inhibitors. In the present work, we have developed a four-feature e-Pharmacophore model based on the receptor–ligand cavity of DprE1 protein (PDB ID 4P8C) and mapped our previous reported library of compounds against it. The compounds were ranked on phase screen score, and the insights obtained from their alignment were used to design some novel compounds. The designed compounds were docked with DprE1 protein in extra-precision mode using Glide module of Maestro, Schrodinger. Some derivatives like B1, B2, B4, B5 and B12 showed comparable docking score (docking score\u2009>\u2009−\u20096.0) with respect to the co-crystallized ligand. The designed compounds were synthesized and characterized. In vitro antitubercular activity was carried out on Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv (ATCC27294) strain using the agar dilution method, and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined. The compound B12 showed a MIC value of 1.56 μg/ml which was better than the standard drug ethambutol (3.125 μg/ml). Compounds B7 and B11 were found to be equipotent with ethambutol. Cytotoxicity studies against Vero cell lines proved that these compounds were non-cytotoxic. Molecular dynamic simulation study also suggests that compound B12 will form a stable complex with DprE1 protein and will show the crucial H-bond interaction with LYS418 residue. Further in vitro enzyme inhibition studies are required to validate these findings.