Prevention of Crystallization in Stones Infection by Chemical Inhibitors

Abstract

Struvite or magnesium ammonium phosphate hexahydrate (MAP) is one of the components of urinary stone. It forms in human beings as a result of urinary tract infection with urea splitting organisms. These stones can grow rapidly forming “staghorn-calculi”, which is a painful urological disorder. Therefore, it is of prime importance to study the growth and inhibition of struvite crystals. In the present work, we have exanimated the interactions between the enzyme urease and two inhibitors (aluminum and citrate acid) by molecular modeling methods. The results show that the presence of aluminum or citrate acid significantly affects struvite crystal growth. It suggested that our inhibitors induced morphology changes that reflect the interactions between the inhibitor and the crystal surfaces at a molecular level. Similar changes were observed in the presence of identical concentrations of citrate acid, and aluminum, emphasizing the unique interaction of phosphocitrate with the struvite crystal.