Identification of potential antivirulence agents by substitution- oriented screening for inhibitors of Streptococcus pyogenes sortase A

Antimicrobial resistance resulting in ineffective treatment of infectious diseases is an increasing global problem, particularly in infections with pathogenic bacteria. In some bacteria, such as Streptococcus pyogenes, the pathogenicity is strongly linked to the attachment of virulence factors. Their attachment to the cellular membrane is a transpeptidation reaction, catalyzed by sortase enzymes. As such, sortases pose an interesting target for the development of new antivirulence strategies that could yield novel antimicrobial drugs. Using the substitution-oriented fragment screening (SOS) approach, we discovered a potent and specific inhibitor (C10) of sortase A from S. pyogenes. The inhibitor C10 showed high specificity towards S. pyogenes sortase A, with an IC50 value of 10 μM and a Kd of 60 μM. We envision that this inhibitor could be employed as a starting point for further exploration of sortase's potential as therapeutic target for antimicrobial drug development.