Anti-quorum sensing activity in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA01 of benzimidazolium salts: electronic, spectral and structural investigations as theoretical approach

Abstract

Quorum sensing (QS) is a system used in the expression of virulence factors by many pathogenic bacteria, and blockage of the system is seen as a new and effective strategy in combating with resistant bacteria. The inhibition effects of two benzimidazolium salts, namely 1-(2-methylbenzonitrile)-3- benzylbenzimidazolium bromide (2) and 1-(N-methylphthalimide)-3-(4-methylbenzyl)benzimidazolium bromide (3), on quorum sensing-related virulence factors such as pyocyanin, elastase, biofilm formation and swarming motility, which is an opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA01, were investigated in this study. The results show that the compound 3 has a significant inhibition on biofilm formation with 94%. Furthermore, the compounds 2 and 3 reduced swarming motility by 64–69% as well as pyocyanin production by 49–64% in P. aeruginosa PA01 without preventing bacterial growth in the tested concentrations. HF, B3LYP and M06–2X methods were used with 3–21 g, 6–31 g, sdd basis sets to compare the chemical activity of the compounds. Theoretically, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and Infrared spectra of the compounds were calculated in the HF/6-31þþg basis set. The biological activities of the relative compounds were theoretically studied against cancer proteins. Crystal structure of the BRCT repeat region from the breast cancer associated protein, ID: 1JNX, crystal structure of liver cancer protein, ID: 3WZE and crystal structure of lung cancer protein, ID: 5ZMA, were compared. In the docking studies, the best result was obtained with compound 2 against the lung cancer cell with a docking score parameter of 5.85.