Exploring functional and structural features of chemically related natural prenylated hydroquinone and benzoic acid from Piper crassinervium (Piperaceae) on bacterial peroxiredoxin inhibition

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 18; no. 2; p. e0281322
• Main Authors: Montanhero Cabrera, Vitoria Isabela, do Nascimento Sividanes, Gabrielle, Quintiliano, Natalia Fernanda, Hikari Toyama, Marcos, Ghilardi Lago, João Henrique, de Oliveira, Marcos Antonio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 24-02-2023; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Acids; Alkyl hydroperoxide reductase; Antibiotics; Antioxidants; Bacteria; Bacteria - metabolism; Bacterial Proteins - metabolism; Benzene; Benzoic Acid; Biology and Life Sciences; Carbonyls; Care and treatment; Complications and side effects; Cysteine; Cysteine - chemistry; Decomposition; Decomposition reactions; Drug resistance; Drug resistance in microorganisms; E coli; Enzymes; Escherichia coli - metabolism; Gel electrophoresis; Humans; Hydrogen bonds; Hydroperoxides; Hydrophobicity; Hydroquinone; Hydroquinones; Immune system; Isoforms; Medicine and Health Sciences; Michael reaction; Molecular weight; Multidrug resistance; Natural products; Nosocomial infections; Oxidation; Oxygen; Patient outcomes; Peroxidase; Peroxidases - metabolism; Peroxiredoxin; Peroxiredoxins - metabolism; Physical Sciences; Piper - chemistry; Piper crassinervium; Piperaceae; Protein expression; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Reactive oxygen species; Reductases; Residues; Sodium lauryl sulfate; Stabilization; Staphylococcus epidermidis; Structure-function relationships; Substitution reactions; Substrates; Sulfhydryl Compounds; Toxicity; Brazil; United States > US
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281322

Multiple drug resistance (MDR) bacterial strains are responsible by 1.2 million of human deaths all over the world. The pathogens possess efficient enzymes which are able to mitigate the toxicity of reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by some antibiotics and the host immune cells. Among them, the bacterial peroxiredoxin alkyl hydroperoxide reductase C (AhpC) is able to decompose efficiently several kinds of hydroperoxides. To decompose their substrates AhpC use a reactive cysteine residue (peroxidatic cysteine-CysP) that together with two other polar residues (Thr/Ser and Arg) comprise the catalytic triad of these enzymes and are involved in the substrate targeting/stabilization to allow a bimolecular nucleophilic substitution (SN2) reaction. Additionally to the high efficiency the AhpC is very abundant in the cells and present virulent properties in some bacterial species. Despite the importance of AhpC in bacteria, few studies aimed at using natural compounds as inhibitors of this class of enzymes. Some natural products were identified as human isoforms, presenting as common characteristics a bulk hydrophobic moiety and an α, β-unsaturated carbonylic system able to perform a thiol-Michael reaction. In this work, we evaluated two chemically related natural products: 1,4-dihydroxy-2-(3',7'-dimethyl-1'-oxo-2'E,6'-octadienyl) benzene (C1) and 4-hydroxy-2-(3',7'-dimethyl-1'-oxo-2'E,6'-octadienyl) benzoic acid (C2), both were isolated from branches Piper crassinervium (Piperaceae), over the peroxidase activity of AhpC from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PaAhpC) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (SeAhpC). By biochemical assays we show that although both compounds can perform the Michael addition reaction, only compound C2 was able to inhibit the PaAhpC peroxidase activity but not SeAhpC, presenting IC50 = 20.3 μM. SDS-PAGE analysis revealed that the compound was not able to perform a thiol-Michael addition, suggesting another inhibition behavior. Using computer-assisted simulations, we also show that an acidic group present in the structure of compound C2 may be involved in the stabilization by polar interactions with the Thr and Arg residues from the catalytic triad and several apolar interactions with hydrophobic residues. Finally, C2 was not able to interfere in the peroxidase activity of the isoform Prx2 from humans or even the thiol proteins of the Trx reducing system from Escherichia coli (EcTrx and EcTrxR), indicating specificity for P. aeruginosa AhpC.