Computational screening of natural plant and marine compounds as potential inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis dihydrodipicolinate synthase.

The escalating threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Mycobacterium tuberculosis highlights the urgent need for innovative therapeutic strategies through searching for novel inhibitor molecules. Plant and marine habitats are rich reservoirs of bioactive compounds. Targeting critical pathways for M. tuberculosis survival, such as cell wall biosynthesis, offers a promising approach for drug discovery. Diaminopimelate, a critical component of the bacterial cell wall, is synthesized through the lysine biosynthesis pathway. Dihydrodipicolinate synthase (Mtb-DapA) is a promising drug target in this pathway. We screened antitubercular natural and marine-derived compounds against Mtb-DapA using molecular docking, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, Molecular Mechanics Poisson Boltzmann Surface Area (MM-PBSA) analysis was performed to estimate binding free energies and identify promising inhibitors. In this study, we analysed 633 phytochemicals from the BioPhytMol Database, 210 anti-TB phytochemicals from recent literature, and 406 marine habitat-derived anti-TB compounds. We report top three inhibitors glycyrrhizin, micromeline and lico-isoflavone based on MD simulations and MM-PBSA analysis. Binding free energies of glycyrrhizin, micromeline and lico-isoflavone were -50.39 kcal/mol, -17.90 kcal/mol, -17.88 kcal/mol respectively as revealed through MM-PBSA analysis. Glycyrrhizin emerged as the most potent inhibitor. These findings underscore the therapeutic potential of glycyrrhizin, micromeline and lico-isoflavone as promising candidates for further development thereby offering hope for alternative treatments against M. tuberculosis.