How Clavulanic Acid Inhibits Serine β‐Lactamases

Abstract

Clavulanic acid is a medicinally important inhibitor of serine β‐lactamases (SBLs). We report studies on the mechanisms by which clavulanic acid inhibits representative Ambler class A (TEM‐116), C (Escherichia coli AmpC), and D (OXA‐10) SBLs using denaturing and non‐denaturing mass spectrometry (MS). Similarly to observations with penam sulfones, most of the results support a mechanism involving acyl enzyme complex formation, followed by oxazolidine ring opening without efficient subsequent scaffold fragmentation (at pH 7.5). This observation contrasts with previous MS studies, which identified clavulanic acid scaffold fragmented species as the predominant SBL bound products. In all the SBLs studied here, fragmentation was promoted by acidic conditions, which are commonly used in LC‑MS analyses. Slow fragmentation was, however, observed under neutral conditions with TEM‐116 on prolonged reaction with clavulanic acid. Although our results imply clavulanic acid scaffold fragmentation is likely not crucial for SBL inhibition in vivo, development of inhibitors that fragment to give stable covalent complexes is of interest.