Comparison of the sulfonamide inhibition profiles of the α-, β- and γ-carbonic anhydrases from the pathogenic bacterium Vibrio cholerae.

Carbonic anhydrases (CA, EC 4.2.1.1) are ubiquitous metalloenzymes, which catalyze the conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) to bicarbonate (HCO3(-)) and protons (H(+)). In prokaryotes, the existence of genes encoding for α-, β- and γ-classes suggests that these enzymes play an important role in the prokaryotic physiology. It has been demonstrated, in fact, that their inhibition in vivo leads to growth impairment or growth defects of the microorganism. Ultimately, we started to investigate the biochemical properties and the inhibitory profiles of the α- and β-CAs identified in the genome of Vibrio cholerae, which is the causative agent of cholera. The genome of this pathogen encodes for CAs belonging to α, β and γ classes. Here, we report a sulfonamide inhibition study of the γ-CA (named VchCAγ) comparing it with data obtained for the α- and β-CA enzymes. VchCAγ activity (kcat=7.39 × 10(5)s(-1)) was significantly higher than the other γ-CAs. The inhibition study with a panel of sulfonamides and one sulfamate led to the detection of a large number of nanomolar VchCAγ inhibitors, including simple aromatic/heterocyclic sulfonamides (compounds 2-9, 11, 13-15, 24) as well as EZA, DZA, BRZ, BZA, TPM, ZNS, SLP, IND (KIs in the range of 66.2-95.3 nM). As it was proven that bicarbonate is a virulence factor of this bacterium and since ethoxzolamide was shown to inhibit this virulence in vivo, we propose that VchCA, VchCAβ and VchCAγ may be a target for antibiotic development, exploiting a mechanism of action rarely considered up until now, i.e., interference with bicarbonate supply as a virulence factor.