Identification of Bacterial FtsZ Effectors Targeting the Sites of Coumarin Binding - Cytology and Genetics

Abstract— There is a large group of bacterial FtsZ inhibitors, the biological activity of which has been confirmed biochemically. However, the sites of protein-ligand interaction for most of them remain unknown, significantly complicating the further search and combinatorial design of FtsZ inhibitors. This study presents the results of bioinformatic analysis of bacterial FtsZ effectors targeting sites of 4-hydroxycoumarin binding (BP1 and BP2). New data based on original results of pharmacophore screening, chemoinformatics, molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulations, AI-predictions, etc., are presented. The object of the study was a combined library of 379 compounds, formed based on revision of the structural database RCSB Protein Data Bank and biochemically proven FtsZ effectors from ChEMBL. Based on the results of a comprehensive study, 39 compounds were selected, of which 28 were identified as effectors of the sites BP1 and BP2, and another 11 as specific effectors of the site BP2 located in the BP2/IDC superpocket.