The problem of drug resistance of Gram-negative bacteria has become increasingly serious and has aroused widespread public concern.The "super bacteria" producing New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase(NDM-1) are resistant to almost all β-lactam antibiotics.However, clinically existing β-lactamase inhibitors are ineffective against metallo-β-lactamases(MBLs) including NDM-1.Therefore, effective NDM-1 inhibitors are urgently needed.In this study, a high-throughput screening model for NDM-1 inhibitors was optimized and used to screen NDM-1 inhibitors.As a result, IMB-XH1 was screened out as a novel NDM-1 inhibitor from 52 100 compounds of different sources.The combined use of IMB-XH1 can increase the sensitivity of E.coli BL21(DE3)(pET-30 a(+)-NDM-1) to β-lactam antibiotics.Enzymatic kinetic studies indicate that IMB-XH1 is a non-competitive inhibitor of NDM-1 and also has inhibitory activity against other MBLs such as IMP-4, ImiS and L1.As a novel NDM-1 inhibitor, its activity and mechanism of action need to be further explored.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that contributes to high morbidity and mortality. MexAB-OprM is the main efflux pump among the Resistance-Nodulation-Division family multi-drug effiux systems, which contribute greatly to the multidrug resistance of P. aeruginosa. Effiux pump inhibitors （EPIs） of MexAB-OprM could enhance the activity of the antibiotics effiuxed by MexAB-OprM, and thus they might be useful in the clinic as antibacterial synergistic agents. In this work, a new EPI of MexAB-OprM, KL-0153, was discovered by screening of a small molecular library. Its inhibition of MexAB-OprM was confirmed by assays of synergistic activity and EB accumulation. The activity of KL-0153 was shown to be synergistic with antibiotics effiuxed by MexAB-OprM when they were tested against strains expressing MexAB-OprM, especially so for the strains that express MexAB-OprM at high levels. KL-0153 showed more activity than the positive drug carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone in the EB accumulation assay. It cannot be neglected that KL-0153 has significant liver and kidney toxicity. However, KL-0153 may be a lead comoound for the research and development of new tvoes of EPIs.
