Identification of the Inhibitory Compounds for Metallo-β-lactamases and Structural Analysis of the Binding Modes.

Metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs) are significant threats to humans because they deteriorate many kinds of β-lactam antibiotics and are key enzymes responsible for multi-drug resistance of bacterial pathogens. As a result of in vitro screening, two compounds were identified as potent inhibitors of two kinds of MBLs: imipenemase (IMP-1) and New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM-1). The binding structure of one of the identified compounds was clarified by an X-ray crystal analysis in complex with IMP-1, in which two possible binding poses were observed.