Patent Application: US-37496407-A

Abstract:
inhibitors of microbial heme oxygenase and their use for treatment of microbial infections and bioremediation . the inhibitors of microbial heme oxygenase are useful against a new class of antimicrobial agents to target infections that are persistently difficult to combat with the current spectrum of antimicrobial agents . screening methods for selecting inhibitors of microbial heme oxygenase .

Description:
as used herein , “ treat ” means alter , apply , effect , improve , care for or deal with medically or surgically , ameliorate , cure , and or stop an undesired biological ( pathogenic ) process . the skilled artisan is aware that a treatment may or may not cure . as used herein , the effective amount or “ therapeutically effective amounts ” of the compound of the present invention to be used are those amounts effective to produce beneficial results , particularly with respect to antimicrobial treatment , in the recipient animal or patient . such amounts may be initially determined by reviewing the published literature , by conducting in vitro tests or by conducting metabolic studies in healthy experimental animals . before use in a clinical setting , it may be beneficial to conduct confirmatory studies in an animal model , preferably a widely accepted animal model of the particular disease to be treated . preferred animal models for use in certain embodiments are rodent models , which are preferred because they are economical to use and , particularly , because the results gained are widely accepted as predictive of clinical value . a therapeutically effective amount of a compound of the present invention as a treatment varies depending upon the host treated and the particular mode of administration . in one embodiment of the invention as it applies to administering to a subject in need thereof , the dose range will be about 0 . 5 mg / kg body weight to about 500 mg / kg body weight . the term “ body weight ” is applicable when an animal is being treated . when isolated cells are being treated , “ body weight ” as used herein should read to mean “ total cell body weight ”. the term “ total body weight ” may be used to apply to both isolated cell and animal treatment . all concentrations and treatment levels are expressed as “ body weight ” or simply “ kg ” in this application are also considered to cover the analogous “ total cell body weight ” and “ total body weight ” concentrations . however , those of skill will recognize the utility of a variety of dosage range , for example , 1 mg / kg body weight to 450 mg / kg body weight , 2 mg / kg body weight to 400 mg / kg body weight , 3 mg / kg body weight to 350 mg / kg body weight , 4 mg / kg body weight to 300 mg / kg body weight , 5 mg / kg body weight to 250 mg / kg body weight , 6 mg / kg body weight to 200 mg / kg body weight , 7 mg / kg body weight to 150 mg / kg body weight , 8 mg / kg body weight to 100 mg / kg body weight , or 9 mg / kg body weight to 50 mg / kg body weight . further , those of skill will recognize that a variety of different dosage levels will be of use , for example , 1 mg / kg , 2 mg / kg , 3 mg / kg , 4 mg / kg , 5 mg / kg , 7 . 5 mg / kg , 10 mg / kg , 12 . 5 mg / kg , 15 mg / kg , 17 . 5 mg / kg , 20 mg / kg , 25 mg / kg , 30 mg / kg , 35 mg / kg , 40 mg / kg , 45 mg / kg , 50 mg / kg , 60 mg / kg , 70 mg / kg , 80 mg / kg , 90 mg / kg , 100 mg / kg , 120 mg / kg , 140 mg / kg , 150 mg / kg , 160 mg / kg , 180 mg / kg , 200 mg / kg , 225 mg / kg , 250 mg / kg , 275 mg / kg , 300 mg / kg , 325 mg / kg , 350 mg / kg , 375 mg / kg , 400 mg / kg , 450 mg / kg , 500 mg / kg , 550 mg / kg , 600 mg / kg , 700 mg / kg , 750 mg / kg , 800 mg / kg , 900 mg / kg , 1000 mg / kg , 1250 mg / kg , 1500 mg / kg , 1750 mg / kg , 2000 mg / kg , 2500 mg / kg , and / or 3000 mg / kg . of course , all of these dosages are exemplary , and any dosage in - between these points is also expected to be of use in the invention . any of the above dosage ranges or dosage levels may be employed for compound of the present invention . in silico database screening was performed to identify low molecular weight compounds with a high probability of binding to the heme pocket of nm - ho . to initiate this process it was necessary to obtain conformations of the apo form of nm - ho ( i . e . heme not bound ) in which the heme binding pocket was in an “ open ” or accessible state . these were obtained via a molecular dynamics ( md ) simulation of the apo protein from the crystal structure of nm - ho 29 ( as outlined in the experimental section below ). to identify such conformations the accessibility of the heme binding pocket was monitored by following the his - 23 to gly - 116 distance as a function of time ( fig1 ). from this plot it is evident that more accessible conformations of the binding pocket are sampled at the 5 , 575 , 16 , 455 , 16 , 805 and 19 , 965 ps snapshots . accordingly , these four conformations of nm - ho were selected for the database screening calculations . as an example of a screening method of the present application , a primary screening of an 800 , 000 compound database of low molecular weight compounds ( compounds with molecular weight less than 500 da ) that have drug like characteristics was performed using a single conformation ; the 5 , 575 ps structure from the md simulation . the top 50 , 000 compounds were selected from the primary screen based on the n normalized van der waals ( vdw ) attraction interaction energy . the normalization procedure corrects for the tendency of scoring based on interaction energies to bias towards the selection of higher mw species 36 and use of the vdw attractive energy selects compounds that have good steric overlap with the protein and avoiding compounds that have very favorable electrostatics but do not have shape complimentarity with the binding pocket . the selection procedure yielded a distribution with an average mw of 279 ± 77 daltons ; a value that is ideal for studies in which lead compounds are to be identified 37 . the selection of smaller mw compounds may facilitate lead optimization of the active compounds , a process that tends to lead to the increase of the molecular weight during the optimization process . in addition , by increasing the number of low molecular weight compounds selected , the absorption and disposition properties of the selected compounds may be improved 38 , 39 . the 50 , 000 compounds from the primary screen were then subjected to a secondary screen . in this screen conformational flexibility of the protein is partially taken into account by screening the 50 , 000 compounds against four protein conformations . moreover , additional energy minimization is included during the secondary docking to improve the accuracy of the docked poses and scores from the initial screen . as compounds dominated by favorable electrostatics were excluded in the primary screen , scoring for the secondary screen was performed using the total interaction energy along with n 3 / 5 normalization to obtain a desirable mw distribution 36 . from this process the top 1000 compounds were selected . compounds selected from the dock based database screening may be assumed to all structurally complement the target binding site and , thus , have the potential to bind to the protein . it is desirable to select compounds from the top 1000 that have maximal chemical diversity , an approach that has been used successfully by us in previous studies 40 , 41 . obtaining diverse compounds was performed via similarity clustering based on chemical fingerprints . this process lead to approximately 100 clusters following which one or two compounds were selected from each cluster for biological assay . this selection process emphasized identifying compounds that followed lipinski &# 39 ; s rule of 5 , although in cases where all compounds in a cluster did not meet the criteria , a compound was still selected for assay . from this process a total of 153 compounds were selected and then obtained from commercial vendors . table 2 lists the structural formulae , the vendor identification no ., the mw , a10 , d5 and log p for the 153 compounds . table 2 also lists the fluorescence binding , minimum inhibition concentration , nmr sta . transfer , e . coli assay and c . elegans assay for some of the compounds . initial experimental screening of those 153 compounds showed 37 to be soluble in either buffer or dmso ; these compounds were subjected to further experimental studies . the compounds of the present invention also include pharmaceutically acceptable salts , esters , solvates , analogs , derivatives , prodrugs , isomers and hydrates thereof . analysis of compounds from the 1 - 153 identified in the initial screen and chemical diversity analysis . a series of experiments were undertaken on the 37 soluble compounds to identify those that both bind to ho in vitro and inhibit ho activity in vivo . in these experiments both nm - ho and pa - ho were tested for binding affinity and ability to inhibit enzymatic activity either in an e . coli expression system ( nm - ho ), or in the bacterial strain itself ( pa - ho ). accordingly , systems for in vitro and in vivo selection were employed for both proteins in identifying biologically active compounds targeted to an inherently virulent pathogen n . meningitidis and an important opportunistic pathogen p . aeruginosa . the initial experimental selection criteria was the ability of the inhibitors to bind to heme oxygenase , as determined by fluorescence quenching of the protein . compounds were first tested for their excitation / emission spectral profiles to ensure they would not interfere with the emission profile of the purified protein . of the 37 compounds , 8 were shown to have no intrinsic fluorescence associated with the compound but reduced protein ( tryptophan ) fluorescence when added in 10 - fold excess . it should be noted that preclusion by fluorescence screening or insolubility by nmr methods and mic50 assays with p . aeruginosa does not necessarily exclude compounds from being ho inhibitors . the structures of the compounds that quenched protein fluorescence ( compounds 1 - 8 ) are shown in fig2 . compounds 1 - 8 of fig2 correspond to compounds 148 , 126 , 75 , 22 , 1 , 114 , 24 and 13 of table 2 , respectively . the binding affinities ( k d &# 39 ; s ) of the selected compounds calculated by the fluorescence titrations against both pa - ho and nm - ho are given in table 1 . the binding affinities for the selected compounds were all in the micromolar range . these 8 compounds were then subjected to additional experimental analysis as described below . inhibition of biliverdin production in an e . coli system expressing nm - ho . the eight compounds were next assessed for their ability to inhibit the production of α - biliverdin in e . coli cells expressing nm - ho . several of the compounds ( compounds 1 - 5 of fig2 ) inhibited the production of α - biliverdin in an e . coli expression system as judged by the lack of pigmentation in the cells ( table 1 and fig3 a ). extraction and hplc analysis of the products from untreated cells or cells treated with compound 3 of fig2 confirmed that the lack of pigmentation was due to the inhibition of α - biliverdin production ( fig3 b ). as an internal standard , the product of the pa - ho reaction , which is a 30 : 70 ratio of β / δ - biliverdin , was added to the lysed cells prior to extraction of the reaction products . as shown in fig3 b the extraction of biliverdin from untreated and cells treated with compound 3 of fig2 yielded similar levels of the internal standard ( β / δ - biliverdin ). in stark contrast , a marked decrease in the nm - ho catalyzed α - biliverdin product is observed in the cells treated with compound 3 of fig2 . integration of the α - biliverdin peak from the control culture compared to the treated cells ( accounting for the levels of the extracted internal standard ) estimated a 60 % decrease in α - biliverdin product as a consequence of nm - ho inhibition . compounds 1 through 8 of fig2 were further analyzed for their ability to inhibit the growth of mpa01 when given heme as the sole source of iron . mpa01 growth inhibition when heme is the iron source is a strong indication that ho activity plays a central role in obtaining iron necessary for cell viability . concentrations of compounds 1 through 8 of fig2 at concentrations of 10 - 1500 μm were assessed for the ability to inhibit growth in 96 - well growth assays . none of the compounds tested inhibited the growth of mpao1 below 250 μm , whereas compounds 2 and 3 of fig2 appeared to significantly decrease the growth of mpa01 at concentrations & gt ; 250 μm ( data not shown ). in order to determine if the growth end - points observed in the 96 - well assays resulted from a slower growth rate versus cell death , the growth of mpa01 in the presence of compounds 2 or 3 of fig2 was monitored in larger cultures at a single 10 hour time point and over the complete growth curve ( fig4 and 5 ). the growth inhibition of mpa01 in the presence of compounds 2 or 3 of fig2 was monitored at a final 10 hour time point with selected inhibitor concentrations ranging from 10 - 1500 μm . mpa01 cultures grown under iron - restricted conditions in the absence or presence of the compounds did not show a significant difference in growth , indicating that the compounds themselves were not toxic to the cells ( fig4 ). furthermore , inhibitory effects of compound 2 or 3 of fig2 at 250 μm and above could be overcome on addition of fe ( iii )- pyoverdine ( 40 μm ), an alternate iron source not dependant on ho activity , to the cultures . at concentrations of inhibitor 3 at 500 μm and above a slight inhibitory effect was observed even in the presence of fe ( iii )- pyoverdine ( fig4 b ). in contrast when hemoglobin was provided as the sole iron source , the cultures in the absence of compounds 2 or 3 of fig2 attained optical densities similar to iron - replete media , whereas those in the presence of the inhibitor recovered approximately 40 % of the growth of the control cultures provided fe ( iii )- pyoverdine as an iron - source ( fig4 b and c ). the present data is consistent with the observation presented above in which reduction of the α - biliverdin product in the e . coli expression system in the presence of inhibitor compound 3 of fig2 , suggesting direct inhibition of ho activity is also responsible for the growth inhibition observed in the mpa01 strain . it was further determined that the inhibition of growth of mpa01 in vivo was due to a slower growth rate over a 6 hour period . as shown in fig5 a in the presence of compound 3 of fig2 ( 500 μm ) the slower growth rate in iron - restricted media could be largely overcome on addition of fe ( iii )- pyoverdine . however , in the presence of hemoglobin as the sole iron source , the inhibition of growth was not overcome nor restored to the levels observed for the fe ( iii )- pyoverdine supplemented cultures . in addition the slow growth rate of the bacterial cultures was shown to be due to inhibition of enzymatic activity of ho and not altered levels of protein expression as judged by western blot analysis ( fig5 b ). under iron - restricted conditions the ho levels are up - regulated . additionally , it was noted that in the presence or absence of inhibitor compound 3 of fig2 no significant difference in protein expression levels was observed . however , when supplied with fe ( iii )- pyoverdine the ho levels decrease significantly and are undetectable after 6 hours as the cells begin to utilize the iron provided by the siderophore uptake pathway ( fig5 b ). similarly , the levels of ho expression decrease over time when hemoglobin is provided as the source of iron ( fig5 c ). the uptake and utilization of heme increases the cellular iron levels , initiating the fur - dependent down regulation of the heme uptake genes , including ho . however , the protein levels are still detectable after 6 hours in the presence of hemoglobin versus fe ( iii )- pyoverdine , as heme appears to be a positive regulator of ho expression , whereas when iron is supplied via the siderophore pathway the heme uptake genes are down - regulated more rapidly . these results taken together indicate that the inhibitor , when taken up by the bacteria cells , has no direct effect on the expression levels of the ho protein , further confirming that the decrease in biliverdin is solely due to inhibition of ho enzyme activity . the cadd described in the present invention selects small molecule inhibitors of the ho apoprotein , for example , nm - ho apoprotein ( apo - nm - ho ), that are not analogs of heme or utilize coordination via the iron of the heme . this is in contrast to previous studies where it has been shown that metal substituted porphyrins are effective competitive inhibitors of mammalian heme oxygenase 42 - 45 . some of these inhibitors , such as zn ( ii )- protoporphyrin ix and sn ( iv )- protoporphyrin ix , have been used as therapeutic agents in the treatment of neonatal jaundice , a condition attributed to increased ho activity in newborn infants . however , because of the identical structural motif of the porphyrin macrocycle , such inhibitors have limited selectivity , in that other heme containing proteins including the cytochromes p450 ( cyp ), nitric oxide synthase ( nos ) and soluble guanylate cyclase ( sgc ), are susceptible to metalloporphyrin inhibition 46 - 48 . the compounds of the present invention are not competitive inhibitors of heme oxygenase ( i . e ., are not competitors of heme oxygenase for heme and do not bind to heme ). rather , they bind with ho at the heme binding site so that ho is no longer active to heme . one goal is the selective microbial and bacterial ho inhibition and not to target the protein of the infected organism ( i . e ., animal or human ), which has been the focus of other patents . the compounds of the present invention are not structural analogs of fepp ( e . g ., metal analogs and porphyrin analogs ( e . g ., mesoporphyrins and diiododeuteroporphyrins )). the compounds of the present invention are not porphyrins or derivatives of porphyrins . the compounds of the present invention are not metal porphyrins or metal protoporphyrins or derivatives of metal porphyrins or metal protoporphyrins . heme oxygenase inhibitors developed more recently include the imidazole - dioxolones which have been shown to selectively inhibit the mammalian ho - 1 ( inducible ) versus ho - 2 ( constitutive ) isoform 49 . the diaxolone inhibitors were developed by synthetic modification of the lead compound azalanstat , an inhibitor of lanosterol 14 α - demethylase , a fungal cyp and a critical enzyme in the lanosterol biosynthetic pathway 50 . these inhibitors are selective in that inhibition of sgc , nos and the cyp isoforms 3a1 / 3a2 and cyp2e1 were not observed in vitro . applicants &# 39 ; invention includes small - molecule inhibitors that bind specifically to the apoprotein ( i . e ., protein not bound to heme ) rather than compounds that coordinate to the heme iron , and thus the selectivity toward ho can be increased . this approach , combined with the dramatic difference in active site volume between the bacterial nm - ho and pa - ho versus the mammalian enzymes has been shown to be effective in the present invention , where the eight compounds ( fig2 ) have been shown to bind to ho in vitro . the predicted orientations of active compounds 1 , 2 , 5 , 7 and 8 of fig2 bound to apo nm - ho are shown in fig6 . analysis of fig6 a shows two of the compounds to span the heme binding pocket , residing between his - 23 and gly - 116 , taking advantage of a range of interactions within the binding pocket . several of the compounds bind in a region in the back of the heme pocket previously identified in several bacterial crystal structure ( s ). the extent to which these compounds sample that region is particularly clear in fig6 c where it is seen that the compounds wrap around the proximal helix , binding well below the heme binding region . binding to this region is particularly interesting in that it may facilitate the identification of compounds that bind specifically to ho &# 39 ; s without having significant interactions with other heme binding proteins that do not contain such a pocket . furthermore , this region of the pocket is significantly larger in the mammalian ho enzymes where a pronounced channel runs from the back of the cavity to the surface of the protein 28 . the lead compounds with this binding site may be a means of identifying inhibitors that are selective toward the bacterial 27 , 29 versus the human ho 28 . the compounds of the present invention are the first compounds developed to target bacterial hos , and the apo - form of the enzyme . the compounds and methods of the present invention compounds provide a novel step in the development of antimicrobials that specifically target heme utilization as a mechanism of antimicrobial drug development . the compounds and methods of the present invention compounds represent a new drug that is not covered by any of the current antimicrobial classes . clustering of the lead compounds may provide a framework for drug development . several of the compounds were shown to bind to both pa - ho and nm - ho with binding affinities ( k d ) in the micromolar range ( table 1 and fig2 ). the affinity of heme for the bacterial ho &# 39 ; s ranges from 1 - 5 μm 25 , 51 - 53 , however , it should be noted that in vivo heme is delivered to ho by a heme - trafficking protein indicating “ free ” heme binding affinities may not be relevant to the in vivo mechanism of heme inhibition 54 , 55 . further biological screening of the inhibitors revealed that in addition to in vitro binding to the ho proteins , many of the inhibitors also inhibited α - biliverdin production in e . coli cells expressing nm - ho ( table 1 and fig3 ). the decrease in biliverdin production in cells expressing nm - ho was confirmed on biliverdin extraction and hplc analysis of the product compared with that of cells in the absence of the inhibitor ( fig3 b ). e . coli expressing nm - ho were not subjected to iron - restriction and therefore no significant decrease in cell density was observed between the untreated and treated cell . this data taken together suggests that the compounds are taken up by the bacterial cell and specifically target the ho enzyme as judged by decreased biliverdin formation . the ability of the selected compounds to accumulate in cells and to inhibit endogenous pa - ho was further evaluated in the laboratory strain mpa01 . the initial screening of compounds 1 - 7 of fig2 all indicated some degree of inhibition in the presence of heme as the sole source of iron ( data not shown ). the only exception was compound 8 of fig2 which was toxic to the cells at concentrations above 250 μm ( data not shown ). further analysis of compounds 2 and 3 of fig2 confirmed that the inhibition was specific to heme utilization and did not disrupt iron uptake via the siderophore - uptake pathways when iron was supplied in the form of feiii - pyoverdine ( fig4 a - c ). one key factor in the present invention is the ability of the inhibitors , presumably by passive diffusion , to cross the bacterial cell membrane and directly target the ho protein . although the in vitro k d values were in the 5 - 30 μm range and the growth rates of mpa01 were inhibited at values greater than 250 μm , it is evident that the concentration of compounds 2 , 3 and 5 of fig2 being reached within the cell are sufficient to compete with exogenously acquired heme for binding to ho . additionally , it was noted that there was no significant difference in ho protein expression levels between cultures grown in the presence of the inhibitor and those in the absence of inhibitor . the iron - restricted conditions employed in the current studies mimic the iron - limited environment encountered by the organism on colonization and infection . thus , the current data suggests that in an environment where heme may be the primary source of iron the ability of the organism to establish an infection may be compromised . indeed , it has recently been shown that for staphylococcus aureus heme is the preferred source of iron during the initial stages of infection 56 . however , while the levels of heme available to pathogens under different physiological conditions and disease states is not known , the high - affinity outer - membrane receptors allow bacteria to survive in environments where the heme may be extremely low . this is evident in the case of haemophilus influenzae and porphyromonas gingivalis , both of which have an absolute requirement for heme , as they lack the heme biosynthesis genes , and yet can successfully colonize the naso - and oro - pharynx , respectively 57 , 58 . therefore , even in environments where heme is extremely low , a slight degree of hemolysis induced by the action of secreted virulence factors would significantly increase the levels of hemoglobin available to the bacterial pathogen . in p . aeruginosa secretion of the redox active pyocyanin virulence factor contributes to tissue damage and inflammation , increasing the availability of heme to the bacteria 1 - 3 , 59 . indeed , the levels of human ho - 1 in the lungs of p . aeruginosa infected cf patients has been shown to be up - regulated in a cyto - protective response to bacterial induced oxidative stress and inflammation , highlighting the host &# 39 ; s response in restricting access of the pathogen to heme 60 . therefore , by effectively eliminating or restricting the ability of the pathogen to acquire and utilize heme , significant reduction in the virulence of the organism may be achieved by applicants &# 39 ; invention . identification of putative inhibitors was performed by screening of a virtual database of over 800 , 000 compounds 36 against the heme binding site of nm - ho . the virtual database represents a collection of low molecular weight compounds that are commercially available and predominately have drug like characteristics 61 . this database has been used in the laboratory of dr . alexander d . mackerrel for the identification of inhibitors of several proteins 35 , 40 , 41 , 62 . to obtain multiple conformations of the heme binding site suitable for database screening , the apo form of the protein ( i . e ., without the heme ) was subjected to an md simulation ; from this simulation three conformations which had significant solvent accessibilities of the heme binding site were selected for the database screening . md simulations and related calculations were performed with the program charmm 63 , 64 using the all - hydrogen protein force field parameters 65 including the cmap enhancement 66 , 67 , and the tip3p water model 68 . the crystal module 69 in charmm was used for the periodic boundary conditions , and electrostatic interactions were treated using the particle mesh ewald method 70 . real space electrostatic and lennard - jones cutoffs were 12 å with a force switch smoothing function 71 from 10 to 12 å for the lennard - jones term . the non - bond list was maintained to 12 å and heuristically updated . an integration time step of 2 fs , a temperature of 300 k , and shake to constrain the covalent bonds involving hydrogen atoms 72 were used during the npt simulation , which were performed using the langevin piston algorithm 73 . preparation of the protein for the simulation was initiated by obtaining the 3d structure of nm - ho complexed with heme from the protein databank ( pdb ) 74 ( pdb identifier : 1p3t ) 26 the amino acid numbering herein represents the full length sequence of the protein . the porphyrin moiety was removed and the resulting structure ( 3114 atoms ) was solvated . solvation was performed by overlaying the protein with a pre - equilibrated box of water containing sodium of dimensions 70 . 5 × 64 . 6 × 60 . 4 å , which is approximately 10 å larger than the protein in all directions . all water or sodium ions within 2 . 8 å of the protein non - hydrogen atoms were then deleted . energy minimization of the solvent molecules was performed for 300 steepest - descent ( sd ) steps in the presence of periodic boundary conditions with the protein atoms harmonically restrained . the system was then equilibrated via a 20 ps nvt simulation 75 with the harmonic restraints maintained on the protein . this was followed by initiation of the production npt simulation . this simulation was extended for 20 ns with the initial 1 ns considered equilibration and with coordinates from the trajectory saved every 5 ps . conformations from the md simulations were then selected for database screening as described in the results section . primary database screening was performed on a single nm - ho conformation corresponding to the 5575 ps snapshot from the md simulation . gasteiger charges were added to the protein using moe ( moe ; chemical computing group inc . : montreal , quebec , canada , 2002 ). docking calculations were carried out with the dock program 76 using flexible ligands based on the anchored search method 77 with posing based on the total ligand - protein interaction energy . the solvent - accessible surface 78 was calculated with the program dms from the ucsf midas package 79 using a probe radius of 1 . 4 å . sphere sets , required for initial placement of the ligand during database screening , were calculated with the program sphgen , part of the dock package . spheres that lay inside of the binding pocket on each side of residue his - 23 were selected for the search as each site may display separate binding affinities and specificities . ligand - protein interaction energies were approximated by the sum of the electrostatic and van der waals attractive components as calculated by the grid method 80 implemented in dock using default values . the grid box dimensions were 30 × 30 × 36 å 3 centered on a point placed approximately in the center of the binding pocket . during docking the posing of the ligands was based on the total interaction energy with the target protein ; however , for primary screening scoring was based on the attractive vdw interaction energy , as described in the results . scoring for secondary screening used the total interaction energy . the following operational parameters were applied in the docking runs . database screening initially selected compounds containing 10 or less rotatable bonds and between 10 and 40 non - hydrogen atoms . ligand flexibility was considered by dividing each compound into a collection of non - overlapping rigid segments . individual rigid segments with five or more heavy atoms ( e . g ., aromatic rings ) were selected as “ anchors ”. each anchor was individually docked into the binding site in 200 separate orientations , based on different overlap of the anchor atoms with the sphere set , and was then energy - minimized . the remainder of each molecule was built onto the anchor in a stepwise fashion until the entire molecule was constructed , with each step corresponding to a rotatable bond . at each successive step the dihedral angle about the rotatable bond , which connected the new segment to the previously constructed portion of the molecule , was sampled in 10 ° increments and the lowest energy conformation was then selected . during the build - up process , selected conformers were removed on both the basis of energetic considerations and maximization of diversity of the conformations being sampled , as previously described 77 , 81 . the ligand orientation with the most favorable interaction energy was selected . previous studies in our laboratory have shown that the dock energy score is biased toward the selection of high molecular weight compounds because of the contribution of the compound size to the energy score 36 . such biasing behavior was observed to depend on the shape and chemical properties of the binding pocket . hence , a computationally efficient procedure was developed in which the energy score is normalized by the number of heavy atoms n in each respective compound or by a selected power of n . this normalization approach shifts the molecular weight distribution of the selected compounds into better agreement with that of the entire database . compounds selected from the primary screen were subjected to a secondary screen . this screen involved a more rigorous minimization that included simultaneous energy minimization of the anchor fragment during the iterative build - up procedure . in addition , three additional conformations of the protein obtained from snapshots at 16 , 405 , 16 , 805 and 19 , 965 ps of the md simulations were used , such that each compound was docked individually against four conformations with the best score from the four runs used for final ranking of that compound . from the secondary screen 1000 compounds were selected based on the total interaction energy using n 3 / 5 normalization . selection of the final compounds for experimental assay involved maximizing the chemical diversity of the compounds as well as consideration of their physical properties . this was performed by dividing the 1000 compounds from the secondary docking into chemically dissimilar clusters by applying the tanimoto similarity indexes 82 using the program moe . the clustering procedure started with the calculation of the molecular fingerprints , followed by the calculation of the pairwise tanimoto similarity matrix a ( i , j ) containing the similarity metric between the molecular fingerprints of compounds i and j . from a ( i , j ), a binary matrix b was created such that b ( i , j ) has the value 1 if a ( i , j ) is equal to or greater than s , or 0 otherwise , where s is a user selected similarity threshold that determines if two compounds are defined as similar . the rows of the b matrix were then treated as fingerprints , where two molecules belong to the same cluster if the tanimoto coefficient of their corresponding rows in b is greater than or equal to t , a user selected overlap threshold . this results in two molecules being clustered together if they are similar to the same set of molecules . in the present study the similarity threshold was set to 70 % and the overlap threshold was set to 40 %. compounds for biological assay were selected from the dissimilar sets . this was performed by individually analyzing the clusters and selecting compounds from each cluster based on lipinski &# 39 ; s rule of 5 83 , including solubility ( clogp ≦ 5 ), molecular weight (≦ 500 da ) and the number of the hydrogen bond donors (≦ 5 ) and acceptors (≦ 10 ). in addition , the chemical stability was considered . from the 1 , 000 compounds a subset of 153 chemically diverse molecules were selected for biological assay and purchased from chembridge corporation , san diego , calif . ; chemdiv inc ., san diego , calif . ; maybridge , cornwall uk ; and specs , cumberland , md . pseudomonas aeruginosa mpao1 was obtained from the university of washington , genome center , seattle , wash . the pa - ho and nm - ho genes cloned into pet21a were transformed into e . coli strain bl21 ( de3 ) plyss [ f − ompt hsds b ( r b − m b − ) gal dcm ( de3 )] for protein expression as previously described 25 , 53 . luria bertani ( lb ) broth was used for growth and maintenance of e . coli strains in the presence of ampicillin , 100 μg / ml . mina minimal medium plates were used for growth and maintenance of the mpa01 strain . succinate minimal ( sm ) media ( ph 7 . 0 ) was used for all growth studies of p . aeruginosa . a stock solution of hemoglobin was prepared in sm media ( ph 7 . 0 ). pyoverdine was purified as described by dr . jean - marie meyer , department de genetique moleculaire , denomique et micorbiologie , strasbourg , france . a single colony of mpao1 was grown in 10 ml lb - media for 16 hrs . the culture was pelleted by centrifugation ( 4 , 000 rpm for 10 min at 4 ° c .) and re - suspended in 1 ml of sm media . a 1 : 1000 dilution was made into 1 l of sm and grown for 24 hrs . subsequently , the culture was harvested by centrifugation in a beckman ja - 10 rotor ( 10 , 000 rpm for 15 min ) at 4 ° c . and the resulting supernatant was acidified to ph 6 . 0 . the acidified supernatant was applied to an amberlite xad - 4 ( sigma ) column ( 2 . 5 × 10 cm ) previously washed with 50 % methanol ( meoh ) and extensively equilibrated with double distilled water . the column was washed with 3 volumes of water , and the pigment was eluted in 50 % meoh . the eluate was evaporated to dryness under vacuum and re - suspended in 5 ml of water . the concentration of iron - free pyoverdine ( 1 : 1000 ) was determined in 0 . 5 m acetic acid - sodium acetate buffer , ph 5 . 0 from the extinction coefficient at 340 nm of ε max = 16 , 500 m − 1 cm − 1 184 . a stock solution of fecl 3 ( 4 . 5 mm ) was prepared in 0 . 5 m sodium citrate for reconstitution of the holo - pyoverdine . a 2 . 5 μm stock solution of apo - pyoverdine was reconstituted with fecl 3 at a 1 : 1 ratio to yield the resulting holo - pyoverdine . all inhibitors were prepared by solubilization in dimethyl sulfoxide ( dmso ) and added directly to the cultures or purified protein in the concentrations stated . mpa01 growth inhibition assays were carried out in sm media with a range of inhibitor concentrations from 250 - 1500 μm . the wild - type apo - nm - ho and pa - ho proteins were purified by the previously described procedures 25 , 53 . following purification of the apo - proteins residual biliverdin was removed by passage of the protein over a pbe 94 ® chromatofocusing column ( 1 × 20 cm ) equilibrated in 0 . 025 m imidazole - hcl ( ph 7 . 4 ). the apo - protein was eluted with a ph gradient from 7 - 4 with polybuffer 74 - hcl ® ( ph 4 . 0 ). the proteins eluted at their respective pi &# 39 ; s and the polybuffer was removed by ammonium sulfate precipitation and dialysis against 20 mm tris - hcl ( ph 7 . 5 ). the binding of the compounds to apo - nm - ho and apo - pa - ho were obtained by fluorescence titrations . measurements were made on an iss pc - 1 spectrofluorimeter configured in the l format . full excitation / emission spectra were recorded for each compound to determine the intrinsic fluorescence properties of the selected inhibitors . all experiments with either apo - nm - ho or apo - pa - ho were carried out in 20 mm tris - hcl ( ph 7 . 5 ). the titrations were performed by addition of increasing concentrations of the selected compound ( 0 . 05 - 500 μm ) while maintaining the apo - nm - ho and apo - pa - ho protein concentrations at 1 μm . the optimal excitation wavelength for the apo - proteins was 295 nm and the fluorescence emission was monitored from 300 to 500 nm . the dissociation constants ( k d ) were calculated from reciprocal plots of 1 / δa vs 1 /[ i ] where the decrease in fluorescence , δa , at the maximum emission ( 330 nm ), represents the fraction of occupied binding sites , and [ i ] the concentration of the inhibitor . the slope of the curve equals the k d as described by the equilibrium equation ( 1 ): the binding affinities ( k d ) of each compound for both nm - ho and pa - ho were measured and calculated based on an average of three separate experiments . the nm - ho was expressed with modification of a previously reported method 53 . a single colony of freshly transformed e . coli bl21 ( de3 ) cells was cultured overnight in 10 ml of luria - bertani ( lb ) medium containing 100 μg / ml of ampicillin . the leaky expression of nm - ho in e . coli over a 16 hour period gives rise to green pigmentation in the pellet as a result of heme turnover and α - biliverdin production . the cells following overnight growth in the absence or presence of compound 3 of fig2 ( 1500 μm ) were harvested by centrifugation ( 10 , 000 g for 15 min ). the pelleted cells were lysed in 50 mm tris - hcl buffer ( ph 7 . 4 ) containing 1 mm edta , 2 mm desferroxamine and 1 mm pmsf , and the lysate had added to it purified ( 50 μm ) β / δ - biliverdin as an internal standard . the soluble fraction was then extracted into chloroform and the organic layer was washed three times with water and dried down . the dried residue was resuspended in 500 μl methanol containing 4 % sulfuric acid and incubated for 6 - 8 hours . the resulting biliverdin dimethyl esters were washed with water (× 3 ) dried down and analyzed by hplc as described previously 85 . growth inhibition of pseudomonas aeruginosa mpa01 in the presence of selected compounds . a 15 ml culture of mpao1 was grown from a single colony for 8 hrs at 37 ° c . the culture was diluted in sm - media to an od 600 of 0 . 05 . a 96 - well plate assay was set up with 200 μl mpao1 cultures in sm - media either alone or containing 250 - 1500 μm compound , or 25 μm hemoglobin ± 250 - 1500 μm compound , or 40 μm holo - pyoverdine ± 250 - 1500 μm compound where indicated . the cultures were incubated for 10 hrs at 37 ° c . with aeration , at which point the od 600 for all wells was recorded on a spectramax plus 96 - well plate reader ( molecular devices corporation ). to determine the growth characteristics of mpao1 , in the presence of compound , through log phase and entering early stationary phase , a 15 ml overnight culture was set up from a single colony of mpa01 in sm - media at 37 ° c . with shaking at 200 rpm . the following day the overnight culture was diluted to an od 600 of 0 . 05 in 12 ml sm - media containing 500 μm compound , or 25 μm hemoglobin ± 500 μm compound or 40 μm holo - pyoverdine ± 500 μm compound where indicated . the cultures were grown with aeration at 37 ° c . and the od 600 was measured every hour over a period of 12 hrs . at 0 , 6 , and 10 hour time points , 2 ml samples were collected for subsequent western blot analysis . the pellets were lysed with approximately 350 μl of lysis buffer containing 50 mm tris , 1 mm edta and 1 mm pmsf . the samples were incubated on ice for 15 minutes , sonicated briefly , and spun at 4 ° c . for 10 minutes to remove cell debris . the total protein concentration was determined by bradford assay 86 ( bio - 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51 . 85 . sakamoto , h . ; omata , y . ; adachi , y . ; palmer , g . ; noguchi , m . separation and identification of the regioisomers of verdoheme by reversed - phase ion - pair high - performance liquid chromatography , and characterization of their complexes with heme oxygenase . j inorg biochem 2000 , 82 , 113 - 21 . 86 . bradford , m . m . a rapid and sensitive method for the quantitation of microgram quantities of protein utilizing the principle of protein - dye binding . anal biochem 1976 , 72 , 248 - 54 . 87 . sambrook , j . ; fritsch , e . f . ; maniatis , t . molecular cloning : a laboratory manual , cold spring harbor laboratory , cold spring harbor , n . y . 1989 . all of the cited references herein are hereby specifically incorporated by reference in their entirety . while the invention has been described with reference to certain particular embodiments thereof , the invention is not to be limited to the specific embodiments described and those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . a method for treating microbial infection in a subject in need thereof comprising administering to said subject a therapeutically effective amount of an inhibitor of bacterial heme oxygenase . the method for treating microbial infection of embodiment 1 , wherein said microbial infection is at least one infection selected from the group consisting of fungal , viral , protist and bacterial . the method for treating microbial infection of embodiment 1 , wherein said subject is an animal . the method for treating microbial infection of embodiment 1 , wherein said subject is a human . the method for treating microbial infection of embodiment 1 , wherein said inhibitor inhibits at least one of pa - ho and nm - ho . the method for treating microbial infection of embodiment 1 , wherein said inhibitor inhibits nm - ho . the method for treating microbial infection of embodiment 1 , wherein said inhibitor inhibits pa - ho . the method for treating microbial infection of embodiment 1 , wherein said inhibitor inhibits pa - ho and nm - ho . the method for treating microbial infection of embodiment 1 , wherein said inhibitor is more specific against bacterial ho than against mammalian ho . the method for treating microbial infection of embodiment 1 , wherein said inhibitor disrupts at least one pathway selected from the group consisting of : a method for treating an infection in a patient in need thereof comprising administering to said patient a therapeutically effective amount of at least one compound selected from the group consisting of compounds of general formulae i - xiii . a method for treating an infection in a patient in need thereof comprising administering to said patient a therapeutically effective amount of at least one compound selected from the group consisting of compounds 1 - 153 and derivatives thereof . the method for treating an infection of embodiment 12 , wherein said infection is at least one infection selected from the group consisting of fungal , viral , protist and bacterial . the method for treating an infection of embodiment 13 , wherein said inhibitor is at least one selected from the group consisting of compounds 1 , 13 , 22 , 24 , 75 , 114 , 126 , and 148 [ compounds 1 - 8 of fig2 ] and derivatives thereof . the method for treating an infection of embodiment 14 , wherein said inhibitor is at least one selected from the group consisting of compounds 1 , 75 and 126 [ compounds 2 , 3 or 5 of fig2 ] and derivatives thereof . the method for treating an infection of embodiment 1 or 12 , wherein said bacterial infection is an antibiotic - resistant organism . the method for treating an infection of embodiment 1 or 12 , wherein said infection is due to pseudomonas aeruginosa , n . meninigitidis , c . diphtheriae , haemophilus influenzae and / or porphyromonas gingivalis . the method for treating an infection of embodiment 1 or 12 , wherein said infection is due to pseudomonas aeruginosa and / or n . meninigitidis . the method for treating an infection of embodiment 1 or 12 , wherein said patient has cystic fibrosis . the method for treating an infection of embodiment 1 or 12 , wherein said at least one compound is administered to treat microbial infection in a lung . the method for treating an infection of embodiment 1 or 12 , comprising administering said at least one compound is administered to the lung cavity . a method of decreasing an amount of an undesired organism comprising contacting a cell of the undesired organism with an inhibitor of microbial heme oxygenase having a structure of general formulae i - xiii , wherein the compound inhibits heme oxygenase thereby decreasing the amount of the undesired organism . the method of decreasing an amount of an undesired organism of embodiment 22 , wherein the contacting occurs in vivo , in situ , ex vivo , or in vitro . a pharmaceutical composition comprising a therapeutically effective amount of an inhibitor of microbial heme oxygenase having a molecular weight of less than 500 da , and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier , diluent or excipient . the pharmaceutical composition as claimed in embodiment 24 , wherein said inhibitor of microbial heme oxygenase is an inhibitor of bacterial - ho . the pharmaceutical composition as claimed in embodiment 24 , wherein said inhibitor of microbial heme oxygenase is an inhibitor of nm - ho or pa - ho . a pharmaceutical composition comprising a therapeutically effective amount of an inhibitor of non - mammalian heme oxygenase having a molecular weight of less than 500 da , and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier , diluent or excipient . a pharmaceutical composition comprising a therapeutically effective amount of an inhibitor of heme oxygenase having a molecular weight of less than 500 da , and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier , diluent or excipient . the pharmaceutical composition as claimed in embodiment 24 , wherein said inhibitor of microbial heme oxygenase is an inhibitor of fungal , viral , protist and / or bacterial heme oxygenase . a pharmaceutical composition comprising a therapeutically effective amount of at least one inhibitor of microbial heme oxygenase compound selected from the group consisting of compounds of general formulae i - xiii . a pharmaceutical composition comprising a therapeutically effective amount of at least one inhibitor of microbial heme oxygenase compound selected from the group consisting of compounds 1 - 153 , and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier , diluent or excipient . the pharmaceutical composition as claimed in embodiment 31 , wherein said compound is at least one selected from the group consisting of compounds 1 , 13 , 22 , 24 , 75 , 114 , 126 , and 148 [ compounds 1 - 8 of fig2 ]. the pharmaceutical composition as claimed in embodiment 31 , said compound is at least one selected from the group consisting of compounds 1 , 75 and 126 . [ compounds 2 , 3 or 5 of fig2 .] the pharmaceutical composition as claimed in embodiment 31 , further comprising an antibiotic agent . a method for screening compounds for ability to bind to a heme pocket of a microbial - ho comprising : obtaining at least one conformation of a heme binding pocket in an apo form of the microbial - ho via a molecular dynamics ( md ) simulation of the apo protein from the crystal structure of the microbial - ho ; selecting at least one of said at least one conformation for database screening calculations from a plot of the his - 23 to gly - 116 distance as a function of time ; screening a database of compounds with a single conformation of at least one of said at least one conformation ; and selecting compounds based on the n normalized van der waals attraction interaction energy . the method for screening compounds of embodiment 35 , wherein said single conformation is at 5 , 575 ps . the method for screening compounds of embodiment 35 , further comprising subjecting said selected compounds to a secondary screen with multiple conformations . the method for screening compounds of embodiment 37 , wherein said multiple conformations are four protein conformations at 5 , 575 , 16 , 455 , 16 , 805 , and 19965 ps . the method for screening compounds of embodiment 35 , further comprising grouping said compound from said secondary screen based on chemical fingerprints into one or more clusters of compounds that have chemical diversity . the method for screening compounds of embodiment 39 , further comprising selecting one or two compounds from each cluster for testing with at least one biological assay . the method for screening compounds of embodiment 40 , wherein said one or two compounds from each cluster are selected following lipinski &# 39 ; s rule of 5 . the method for screening compounds of embodiment 40 , further comprising testing for solubility in buffer or dmso . the method for screening compounds of embodiment 40 , further comprising testing said one or two compounds from each cluster to in vitro testing for ability to bind to said microbial - ho . the method for screening compounds of embodiment 40 , further comprising testing said one or two compounds from each cluster to in vivo testing for ability to inhibit said microbial - ho . the method for screening compounds of embodiment 40 , further comprising testing said one or two compounds from each cluster to in vitro testing for binding affinity to said microbial - ho and testing said one or two compounds from each cluster to in vivo testing for ability to inhibit said microbial - ho . the method for screening compounds of embodiment 41 , comprising testing for binding affinity and ability to inhibit enzymatic activity of both nm - ho and pa - ho . the method for screening compounds of embodiment 39 , wherein said in vitro testing for the ability to bind to said microbial - ho comprises testing of fluorescence quenching of the microbial - ho protein . the method for screening compounds of embodiment 47 , wherein said in vitro testing for the ability to bind to said microbial - ho comprises testing the ability to inhibit the production of α - biliverdin in e . coli cells expressing said microbial - ho . the method for screening compounds of embodiment 44 , wherein said in vivo testing for ability to inhibit said microbial - ho comprises testing for ability to inhibit the growth of mpa01 when given heme as the sole source of iron . the method for screening compounds of embodiment 45 , further comprising testing additional compounds of a cluster based on results of said one or two compounds of a cluster .