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The circular bioeconomy is currently a promising model for repurposing natural sources; these sources include plants due to their abundance of bioactive compounds. This study evaluated the antimicrobial properties of a Chaetomorpha linum extract. Chaetomorpha linum is an invasive macroalga from the Orbetello Lagoon (Tuscany, Italy), which grows in nutrient-rich environments and has been forming extended mats since 2005. The biomass is mechanically harvested and treated as waste, consuming considerable manpower and financial resources. As a potential way to increase the value of such waste, this study found that C. linum extract (CLE) is a source of antimicrobial compounds. The phytochemical characterization of the extract revealed the predominant presence of palmitic acid, a fatty acid with known antimicrobial activity. Based on such findings, four bacterial species of high clinical relevance ( Enterococcus faecalis , Staphylococcus aureus , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , and Escherichia coli ) were tested, revealing a notable antibacterial activity of the extract on Enterococcus faecalis (MIC, 32 μg/mL). Computational analyses identified a potential Enterococcus faecalis molecular target for palmitic acid, offering molecular insights on the interaction. This study presents a comprehensive in vitro and in silico approach for drug and target discovery studies by repurposing C. linum as a source of antimicrobial bioactive compounds.

The worldwide emergence and dissemination of Gram-negative bacteria expressing metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs) menace the efficacy of all β-lactam antibiotics, including carbapenems, a last-line treatment usually restricted to severe pneumonia and urinary tract infections. Nonetheless, no MBL inhibitor is yet available in therapy. We previously identified a series of 1,2,4-triazole-3-thione derivatives acting as micromolar inhibitors of MBLs in vitro, but devoid of synergistic activity in microbiological assays. Here, via a multidisciplinary approach, including molecular modelling, synthesis, enzymology, microbiology, and X-ray crystallography, we optimized this series of compounds and identified low micromolar inhibitors active against clinically relevant MBLs (NDM-1- and VIM-type). The best inhibitors increased, to a certain extent, the susceptibility of NDM-1- and VIM-4-producing clinical isolates to meropenem. X-ray structures of three selected inhibitors in complex with NDM-1 elucidated molecular recognition at the base of potency improvement, confirmed in silico predicted orientation, and will guide further development steps.

Vibrio cholerae causes life-threatening infections in low-income countries due to the rise of antibacterial resistance. Innovative pharmacological targets have been investigated and carbonic anhydrases (CAs, EC: 4.2.1.1) encoded by V. cholerae ( Vch CAs) emerged as a valuable option. Recently, we developed a large library of para - and meta -benzenesulfonamides characterised by moieties with a different flexibility degree as CAs inhibitors. Stopped flow-based enzymatic assays showed strong inhibition of Vch αCA for this library, while lower affinity was detected against the other isoforms. In particular, cyclic urea 9c emerged for a nanomolar inhibition of Vch αCA ( K I = 4.7 nM) and high selectivity with respect to human isoenzymes (SI≥ 90). Computational studies revealed the influence of moiety flexibility on inhibitory activity and isoform selectivity and allowed accurate SARs. However, although Vch CAs are involved in the bacterium virulence and not in its survival, we evaluated the antibacterial activity of such compounds, resulting in no direct activity.

New classes of antibacterial drugs are urgently needed to address the global issue of antibiotic resistance. In this context, peptaibols are promising membrane-active peptides since they are not involved in innate immunity and their antimicrobial activity does not involve specific cellular targets, therefore reducing the chance of bacterial resistance development. Trichogin GA IV is a nonhemolytic, natural, short-length peptaibol active against Gram-positive bacteria and resistant to proteolysis. In this work, we report on the antibacterial activity of cationic trichogin analogs. Several peptides appear non-hemolytic and strongly active against many clinically relevant bacterial species, including antibiotic-resistant clinical isolates, such as Staphylococcus aureus , Acinetobacter baumannii , and extensively drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa , against which there are only a limited number of antibiotics under development. Our results further highlight how the modification of natural peptides is a valuable strategy for obtaining improved antibacterial agents with potential therapeutic applications.

Streptomyces lunaelactis strains have been isolated from moonmilk deposits, which are calcium carbonate speleothems used for centuries in traditional medicine for their antimicrobial properties. Genome mining revealed that these strains are a remarkable example of a Streptomyces species with huge heterogeneity regarding their content in biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) for specialized metabolite production. BGC 28a is one of the cryptic BGCs that is only carried by a subgroup of S . lunaelactis strains for which in silico analysis predicted the production of nonribosomal peptide antibiotics containing the non-proteogenic amino acid piperazic acid (Piz). Comparative metabolomics of culture extracts of S . lunaelactis strains either holding or not holding BGC 28a combined with MS/MS-guided peptidogenomics and 1 H/ 13 C NMR allowed us to identify the cyclic hexapeptide with the amino acid sequence (D-Phe)-(L-HO-Ile)-(D-Piz)-(L-Piz)-(D-Piz)-(L-Piz), called lunaemycin A, as the main compound synthesized by BGC 28a. Molecular networking further identified 18 additional lunaemycins, with 14 of them having their structure elucidated by HRMS/MS. Antimicrobial assays demonstrated a significant bactericidal activity of lunaemycins against Gram-positive bacteria, including multi-drug resistant clinical isolates. Our work demonstrates how an accurate in silico analysis of a cryptic BGC can highly facilitate the identification, the structural elucidation, and the bioactivity of its associated specialized metabolites.

The diffusion of antibiotic-resistant, Gram-negative, opportunistic pathogens, an increasingly important global public health issue, causes a significant socioeconomic burden. Acinetobacter baumannii isolates, despite causing a lower number of infections than Enterobacterales, often show multidrug-resistant phenotypes. Carbapenem resistance is also rather common, prompting the WHO to include carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii as a "critical priority" for the discovery and development of new antibacterial agents. In a previous work, we identified several series of compounds showing either direct-acting or synergistic activity against relevant Gram-negative species, including A. baumannii. Among these, two pyrazole compounds, despite being devoid of any direct-acting activity, showed remarkable synergistic activity in the presence of a subinhibitory concentration of colistin on K. pneumoniae and A. baumannii and served as a starting point for the synthesis of new analogues. In this work, a new series of 47 pyrazole compounds was synthesized. Some compounds showed significant direct-acting antibacterial activity on Gram-positive organisms. Furthermore, an evaluation of their activity as potential antibiotic adjuvants allowed for the identification of two highly active compounds on MDR Acinetobacter baumannii , including colistin-resistant isolates. This work confirms the interest in pyrazole amides as a starting point for the optimization of synergistic antibacterial compounds active on antibiotic-resistant, Gram-negative pathogens.

A protracted outbreak of New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM)-producing carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae started in Tuscany, Italy, in November 2018 and continued in 2020 and through 2021. To understand the regional emergence and transmission dynamics over time, we collected and sequenced the genomes of 117 extensively drug-resistant, NDM-producing K. pneumoniae isolates cultured over a 20-mo period from 76 patients at several healthcare facilities in southeast Tuscany. All isolates belonged to high-risk clone ST-147 and were typically nonsusceptible to all first-line antibiotics. Albeit sporadic, resistances to colistin, tigecycline, and fosfomycin were also observed as a result of repeated, independent mutations. Genomic analysis revealed that ST-147 isolates circulating in Tuscany were monophyletic and highly genetically related (including a network of 42 patients from the same hospital and sharing nearly identical isolates), and shared a recent ancestor with clinical isolates from the Middle East. While the bla NDM-1 gene was carried by an IncFIB-type plasmid, our investigations revealed that the ST-147 lineage from Italy also acquired a hybrid IncFIB/IncHIB-type plasmid carrying the 16S methyltransferase armA gene as well as key virulence biomarkers often found in hypervirulent isolates. This plasmid shared extensive homologies with mosaic plasmids circulating globally including from ST-11 and ST-307 convergent lineages. Phenotypically, the carriage of this hybrid plasmid resulted in increased siderophore production but did not confer virulence to the level of an archetypical, hypervirulent K. pneumoniae in a subcutaneous model of infection with immunocompetent CD1 mice. Our findings highlight the importance of performing genomic surveillance to identify emerging threats., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest., (Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.)

In Gram-negative bacteria, the major mechanism of resistance to β-lactam antibiotics is the production of one or several β-lactamases (BLs), including the highly worrying carbapenemases. Whereas inhibitors of these enzymes were recently marketed, they only target serine-carbapenemases (e.g. KPC-type), and no clinically useful inhibitor is available yet to neutralize the class of metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs). We are developing compounds based on the 1,2,4-triazole-3-thione scaffold, which binds to the di-zinc catalytic site of MBLs in an original fashion, and we previously reported its promising potential to yield broad-spectrum inhibitors. However, up to now only moderate antibiotic potentiation could be observed in microbiological assays and further exploration was needed to improve outer membrane penetration. Here, we synthesized and characterized a series of compounds possessing a diversely functionalized alkyl chain at the 4-position of the heterocycle. We found that the presence of a carboxylic group at the extremity of an alkyl chain yielded potent inhibitors of VIM-type enzymes with K i values in the μM to sub-μM range, and that this alkyl chain had to be longer or equal to a propyl chain. This result confirmed the importance of a carboxylic function on the 4-substituent of 1,2,4-triazole-3-thione heterocycle. As observed in previous series, active compounds also preferentially contained phenyl, 2-hydroxy-5-methoxyphenyl, naphth-2-yl or m-biphenyl at position 5. However, none efficiently inhibited NDM-1 or IMP-1. Microbiological study on VIM-2-producing E. coli strains and on VIM-1/VIM-4-producing multidrug-resistant K. pneumoniae clinical isolates gave promising results, suggesting that the 1,2,4-triazole-3-thione scaffold worth continuing exploration to further improve penetration. Finally, docking experiments were performed to study the binding mode of alkanoic analogues in the active site of VIM-2., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

To fight the increasingly worrying bacterial resistance to antibiotics, the discovery and development of new therapeutics is urgently needed. Here, we report on a new series of 1,2,4-triazole-3-thione compounds as inhibitors of metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs), which represent major resistance determinants to β-lactams, and especially carbapenems, in Gram-negative bacteria. These molecules are stable analogs of 4-amino-1,2,4-triazole-derived Schiff bases, where the hydrazone-like bond has been reduced (hydrazine series) or the 4-amino group has been acylated (hydrazide series); the synthesis and physicochemical properties thereof are described. The inhibitory potency was determined on the most clinically relevant acquired MBLs (IMP-, VIM-, and NDM-types subclass B1 MBLs). When compared with the previously reported hydrazone series, hydrazine but not hydrazide analogs showed similarly potent inhibitory activity on VIM-type enzymes, especially VIM-2 and VIM-4, with K i values in the micromolar to submicromolar range. One of these showed broad-spectrum inhibition as it also significantly inhibited VIM-1 and NDM-1. Restoration of β-lactam activity in microbiological assays was observed for one selected compound. Finally, the binding to the VIM-2 active site was evaluated by isothermal titration calorimetry and a modeling study explored the effect of the linker structure on the mode of binding with this MBL.

The application of various isonitrile-based multicomponent reactions to protected (2-oxoethyl)boronic acid (as the carbonyl component) is described. The Ugi reaction, both in the four components and in the four centers-three components versions, and the van Leusen reaction, proved effective at providing small libraries of MIDA-protected β-aminoboronic acids. The corresponding free β-aminoboronic acids, quantitatively recovered through basic mild deprotection, were found to be quite stable and were fully characterized, including by 11 B-NMR spectroscopy. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis, applied both to a MIDA-protected and a free β-aminoboronic acid derivative, provided evidence for different conformations in the solid-state. Finally, the antimicrobial activities of selected compounds were evaluated by measuring their minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values, and the binding mode of the most promising derivative on OXA-23 class D β-lactamase was predicted by a molecular modeling study., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest

Antibiotic resistance is an increasingly important global public health issue, as major opportunistic pathogens are evolving toward multidrug- and pan-drug resistance phenotypes. New antibiotics are thus needed to maintain our ability to treat bacterial infections. According to the WHO, carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter , Enterobactericaeae , and Pseudomonas are the most critical targets for the development of new antibacterial drugs. An automated phenotypic screen was implemented to screen 634 synthetic compounds obtained in-house for both their direct-acting and synergistic activity. Fourteen percent and 10% of the compounds showed growth inhibition against tested Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, respectively. The most active direct-acting compounds showed a broad-spectrum antibacterial activity, including on some multidrug-resistant clinical isolates. In addition, 47 compounds were identified for their ability to potentiate the activity of other antibiotics. Compounds of three different scaffolds (2-quinolones, phenols, and pyrazoles) showed a strong potentiation of colistin, some being able to revert colistin resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii ., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society.)