Inhibition and structural insights of leishmanial glutamyl-tRNA synthetase for designing potent therapeutics

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs), essential components of the protein synthesizing machinery, have been often chosen for devising therapeutics against parasitic diseases. Due to their relevance in drug development, the current study was designed to explore functional and structural aspects of Leishmania donovani glutamyl-tRNA synthetase (LdGluRS). Hence, LdGluRS was cloned into an expression vector and purified to homogeneity using chromatographic techniques. Purified protein showed maximum enzymatic activity at physiological pH, with more binding capacity towards its cofactor (Adenosine triphosphate, 0.06 ± 0.01 mM) than the cognate substrate (L-glutamate, 9.5 ± 0.5 mM). Remarkably, salicylate inhibited LdGluRS competitively with respect to L-glutamate and exhibited druglikeness with negligible effect on human macrophages. The protein possessed more α-helices (43 %) than β-sheets (12 %), whereas reductions in thermal stability and cofactor-binding affinity, along with variation in mode of inhibition after mutation signified the role of histidine (H60) as a catalytic residue. LdGluRS could also generate a pro-inflammatory milieu in human macrophages by upregulating cytokines. The docking study demonstrated the placement of salicylate into LdGluRS substrate-binding site, and the complex was found to be stable during molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Altogether, our study highlights the understanding of molecular inhibition and structural features of glutamyl-tRNA synthetase from kinetoplastid parasites.