Abstract
Metallo-β-lactamases are enzymes that give the bacteria that synthesize them antibiotic resistance. B Class represents the beta-lactamases, wherein one or two Zn atom(s) promote(s) β-lactams (antibiotics) hydrolysis. The major resistance mechanism is the degradation of the β-lactams by bacterial enzymes called β-lactamases. One major approach to overcome this resistance deals with combination therapy in which a β-lactam drug is given along with a β-lactamase inhibitor, which protects the former from inactivation. The objective of this thesis is to implement modeling tools based on quantum mechanical methods to determine metallo-β-lactamase structures with inhibitors, a step necessary to understand at a later stage the mechanisms of response to the degradation of the inhibitor by β-lactamases and to provide information that will serve to better interpret biological phenomena.We have first determined the geometries and the stability of metal coordination complexes of model systems containing Zn, as in the metallo-β-lactamase metal sites, or Cu, complexed to histidines coordinated by Nπ or Nτ, in order to see if there is a geometric preference for one or the other of the two coordination’s and to see the influence of these different possible coordination’s on the geometrical parameters at the metallic site. Finally, the presence of water and the influence of the aqueous solvent were studied. Using these methods of quantum chemistry based on the density functional theory, we have shown how these methods provide structural information on the symmetry adopted by the metallic centers of Zn2 + and Cu2 +. This structural study allows us to demonstrate structural differences between these two metal ions and to determine the vibrational spectra. These investigations were able to demonstrate the nature of the metal-ligand bonds through topological approaches. We have shown that these preliminary studies have conducted us to choose the best method of DFT calculations for studying zinc centers in β-lactamase structures.To complete the study of metallo-β-lactamase structures, we have determined the structure of the native enzyme L1 (β-lactamase) which permitted to reproduce the geometric parameters of the experimental structures of L1. We have shown that the combination of quantum and classical approaches (QM/MM) allows to reproduce with very good confidence the structural parameters of the L1 enzyme active sites.Finally, we have determined the structures of certain active sites in the B3 family of Metallo-β lactamases (Enzyme L1) to compare the affinities of different families synthesized at IBM in Montpellier (Institute of Biomolecules of Montpellier) and to predict the possible structure of L1 with different inhibitors by QM / MM methods to see if this strategy can be applied to other inhibitors for metallo-β-lactamases.