Slow-Binding Inhibition of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Shikimate Kinase by Manzamine Alkaloids.

Tuberculosis represents a significant public health crisis. There is an urgent need for novel molecular scaffolds against this pathogen. We screened a small library of marine-derived compounds against shikimate kinase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis ( MtSK), a promising target for antitubercular drug development. Six manzamines previously shown to be active against M. tuberculosis were characterized as MtSK inhibitors: manzamine A (1), 8-hydroxymanzamine A (2), manzamine E (3), manzamine F (4), 6-deoxymanzamine X (5), and 6-cyclohexamidomanzamine A (6). All six showed mixed noncompetitive inhibition of MtSK. The lowest KI values were obtained for 6 across all MtSK-substrate complexes. Time-dependent analyses revealed two-step, slow-binding inhibition. The behavior of 1 was typical; initial formation of an enzyme-inhibitor complex (EI) obeyed an apparent KI of ∼30 μM with forward ( k5) and reverse ( k6) rate constants for isomerization to an EI* complex of 0.18 and 0.08 min-1, respectively. In contrast, 6 showed a lower KI for the initial encounter complex (∼1.5 μM), substantially faster isomerization to EI* ( k5 = 0.91 min-1), and slower back conversion of EI* to EI ( k6 = 0.04 min-1). Thus, the overall inhibition constants, KI*, for 1 and 6 were 10 and 0.06 μM, respectively. These findings were consistent with docking predictions of a favorable binding mode and a second, less tightly bound pose for 6 at MtSK. Our results suggest that manzamines, in particular 6, constitute a new scaffold from which drug candidates with novel mechanisms of action could be designed for the treatment of tuberculosis by targeting MtSK.