In silico mutational analysis in RNA polymerase β subunit (rpoB) gene of rifampicin-resistant in Mycobacterium tuberculosis from Malaysia

Tuberculosis (TB) is mainly caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and remains as a key public health problem worldwide. Most of MTB clinical strains are resistant to rifampicin (RIF), the first-line anti-tuberculosis drug. RIF resistance to MTB is due to mutations that mainly found in RIF resistance-determining region (RRDR) in drug target gene, RNA polymerase β subunit (rpoB). Therefore, the aim of the study is to extend the identification of variants in rpoB gene and to elucidate the effect of variants to the RIF resistance. Four of the strains, MTBR1/09, MTBR2/09, MTBR3/09 and MTB221/11 were subjected to drug susceptibility test (DST). All of the strains sequenced and submitted to the National Center for Biotechnology Information Sequence Read Archive were analyzed to identify the variants in the rpoB gene. The identified new variants were then subjected to docking to examine the drug-protein interactions. DST analysis revealed MTBR1/09, MTBR2/09 and MTBR3/09 were resistant to the RIF drug, while MTB221/11 was a presumptive susceptible strain. Two new variants were observed, the deletion (Phe433_Met434delinsLeu in MTBR1/09) and missense (Lys37Arg in MTBR3/09) variants. Meanwhile, the His445Leu, Ser450Leu, Asp103Asp, Ala1075Ala were reported variants. Docking of RIF to MTBR1/09 and MTBR3/09 mutant models revealed the RIF bound to the RIF binding site at different binding affinity and conformation. Concurrently, the new variants caused the RIF to bind to the different active site and neighboring residues. Findings from DST and docking analyses indicate that new variants potentially disturb the RIF inhibition in RpoB mutant proteins, and thus might be responsible to cause the RIF resistance.