DOCKING STUDIES IN TARGET PROTEINS INVOLVED IN ANTIBACTERIAL ACTION MECHANISMS: ALKALOIDS ISOLATED FROM SCUTELLARIA GENUS

Objective: In the present work, docking study was performed for 22 selected alkaloids isolated from the genus Scutellaria to evaluate their affinityto bacterial proteins that are known targets for many antibiotics with a different mechanism of action: Inhibitors of cell wall synthesis, inhibitors ofnucleic acids synthesis and antimetabolites.Methods: Molecular docking study was carried out using AutoDock 4.2 version and the visualization result using Chimera 1.10 and DiscoveryStudio 4.5.Result: Among the 22 alkaloids studied, with the DNA gyrase protein 1KZN and a dihydropteroate synthase enzyme 3TYE, the compoundscutebarbatine E showed a docking score of −8.5 and −8.7 Kcal/mol, respectively, involving with hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions. Withrespect to MurD ligase involved in cell wall synthesis 1UAG and 2X5O, the compound 6,7,nicotinyl scutebarbatine G fared well with a dockingscore of −10.1 and −10.2 Kcal/mol, respectively. Scutebarbatine G performed well with respect to 3UDI with binding scores of −9.3 K cal/mol.Conclusion: Overall, it seems that for the selected alkaloids from the genus Scutellaria, the main mechanism of the action is the inhibition of cell wallsynthesis.Keywords: Scutebarbatine, Alkaloids, Molecular docking, Antimicrobial studies.