Structure–inhibitory-activity relationship.
Several compounds have been identified as IMP-1 metallo-β-lactamase inhibitors in an automated microassay system using nitrocefin as a substrate. In this assay, IC
50s of marketed β-lactam antibiotics such as panipenem, ampicillin, ceftazidime, cephaloridine, and aztreonam were over 100 μM. Meropenem and flomoxef showed weak inhibitory activity with IC
50s of 25 and 60 μM, respectively. The IC
50s of metal chelators such as dipicolinic acid (
39) and EDTA were within the range of 80 to 200 μM. Cilastatin sodium, an inhibitor of renal membrane dipeptidase (dehydropeptidase I) (
16) and a weak inhibitor of CphA metallo-β-lactamase from
Aeromonas acidophila(
17), did not show inhibitory activity against IMP-1 metallo-β-lactamase at the concentration of 10 μM.
The structure–inhibitory-activity relationship of J-110,441 having benzothienylthio moiety as a side chain and related analogs is summarized in Table
1. The most remarkable finding in this study was that the introduction of a 2-substituted benzothiophene at the C-2 position of 1β-methylcarbapenem, which resulted in J-110,441, led to strong inhibitory activity with an IC
50 of <0.1 μM. Replacement of the 2-substituted benzothiophene with a 3-substituted benzothiophene (compound 1a), a benzothiazole (compound 2a), or a benzimidazole (compound 2b) resulted in decreased inhibitory activity. Introduction of the methyl ester to the carboxylic acid of the carbapenem nucleus (compound 1b) or insertion of a pyrrolidine ring as a spacer between the carbapenem nucleus and the benzothienylthio moiety (compound 1c) produced a marked reduction in inhibitory activity.
Dithiocarbamate carbapenems showed relatively good inhibitory activity; the IC
50s of the compounds tested ranged from <0.1 to 1.8 μM, as shown in Table
2. Among the dithiocarbamate compounds tested, those of the 1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridin-1-ylthiocarbonylthio series (compounds 3a to 3e) had better inhibitory activity than did the others (compounds 3f and 3g). The introduction of a cationic side chain (compare compounds 3a to 3d with compound 3e) produced an increase in inhibitory activity, especially in the case of dicationic 1,4-diazabicyclo[2,2,2]octane (DABCO) having a carbamoylmethyl or hydroxyethyl substituent in the side chain (compounds 3a and 3b), which had an IC
50 below 0.1 μM. The carbamoylmethyl- or hydroxyethyl-substituted DABCO itself did not inhibit IMP-1 metallo-β-lactamase at the concentration of 10 μM.
The structure–inhibitory-activity relationship of pyrrolidinylthio carbapenem derivatives is shown in Table
3. The introduction of an aminomethyl group to the benzene ring (compare compounds 4a and 4b with 4c) and alkylation of the nitrogen of pyrrolidine with hydroxyethyl (compare compound 6a with 6b) brought about stronger inhibitory activity. An additional aminomethyl (compare compound 4a with 4b) increased inhibitory activity. A decrease in inhibitory activity was caused by (i) replacement of the aminomethyl group attached to the benzene ring with hydroxymethyl (compare compound 6b with 6d), (ii) substitution on the benzylic methylene position (compare compound 6b with 6c), (iii) introduction of a methyl group on the pyrrolidine ring (compare compound 5a with 5b), and (iv) use of cyclohexane instead of the benzene ring (compare compound 6b with 6e). The thiol side chain of compound 5a did not inhibit the enzyme at the concentration of 10 μM, although the IC
50 of compound 5a was 0.7 μM (
21). The important observation was that direct attachment of a benzene ring to pyrrolidine was necessary for inhibitory activity because the introduction of spacers between pyrrolidine and the benzene ring (compound 6f) or cleavage of the pyrrolidine ring (compound 6g) caused a decrease in inhibitory activity.
With respect to the stereochemistry of the pyrrolidine ring of compound 5a, the Ki values of the compounds withtrans (compound 5a) and cis configurations were 0.18 and 0.12 μM, respectively. The results suggested that the C-5 stereochemistry of the pyrrolidine ring was not a crucial factor for the inhibitory potential for IMP-1 enzyme, while the inhibitory activity was markedly reduced by inversion of the C-3 chiral center of the pyrrolidine ring (IC50, >10 μM) regardless of C-5 stereochemistry.
It was noteworthy that replacement of the benzene ring with thiophene (compare compound 7a with 4b) showed increased inhibitory activity. Alkylation of the amino group did not affect the inhibitory activity (compound 7b); however, a 3-thienyl analog (compound 7c) was over 10 times less potent than the 2-thienyl compound (compound 7b).
Among the pyrrolidinylthio carbapenems tested, compound 7a was more stable under the hydrolysis by and more potent against various metallo-β-lactamases than was compound 4a or 6a.
Inhibitory activity against various β-lactamases.
Some compounds with an IC
50 below 0.1 μM were selected and were characterized by studying their affinity for class B metallo-β-lactamases and class A and class C serine β-lactamases and their stability under hydrolysis by these enzymes (Table
4).
Among all the compounds tested, J-110,441, having a benzothienylthio moiety at the C-2 position of 1β-methylcarbapenem, was found to be the most stable under hydrolysis by all of the metallo- and serine β-lactamases tested in terms of relative hydrolysis rate, which ranged from <1 to 8% for IMP-1, CcrA, L1, and
B. cereustype II metallo-β-lactamases and group 2b and group 1 serine β-lactamases. In particular, it is noted that J-110,441 exhibited better inhibitory activity than did the other inhibitors against metallo-β-lactamases, since the K
i values were 0.0037, 0.23, 1.00, and 0.83 μM for IMP-1 encoded on the transferable
blaIMP gene, CcrA from
B. fragilis, L1 from
S. maltophilia, and type II from
B. cereus, respectively. J-110,441 inhibited IMP-1 in a competitive manner (Fig.
1) and also showed inhibitory activity against class A and class C serine β-lactamases with K
i values of 2.54 and 0.037 μM, respectively. The inhibition by J-110,441 was reversible. Thus, J-110,441 was suggested to have potential as a new class of β-lactamase inhibitor with a broad spectrum.
As shown in Table
4, compounds 3a and 7a also showed appreciable relative stability under hydrolysis by IMP-1 metallo-β-lactamase, which was similar to that of J-110,441, and the inhibitory activity against these enzymes was observed as K
i values of 0.09 and 0.01 μM, respectively. However, the compounds were more susceptible to hydrolysis by the CcrA and L1 enzymes than to that by the IMP-1 enzyme. Against class A and class C serine β-lactamases, the inhibitory activity of these compounds was inferior to that of J-110,441.
Combined effect on antimicrobial activity.
Table
5 presents the antimicrobial activities of J-110,441, imipenem, ceftazidime, and their combination against β-lactamase producers. The organisms that produce class B enzymes showed resistance to imipenem and ceftazidime, while
E. cloacae, which is a derepressed producer of class C enzyme, remained susceptible to imipenem but showed high resistance to ceftazidime. The activity of imipenem or ceftazidime was potentiated in the presence of J-110,441. Especially against clinical isolates of
S. marcescens producing IMP-1, the MICs of imipenem, ranging from 64 to 256 μg/ml, decreased to levels ranging from 4 to 64 μg/ml in the presence of one-fourth of the MIC of J-110,441. Against class C β-lactamase-producing
E. cloacae, the MIC of ceftazidime decreased from 64 to 4 μg/ml in the presence of 4 μg of J-110,441 per ml. Synergy (FIC index, ≤0.5) of imipenem or ceftazidime with J-110,441 was observed against 9 of 11 strains tested that were resistant mainly due to the production of class B and/or class C β-lactamases. However, the results indicated that some strains are still clinically resistant to imipenem even in combination with J-110,441.