Targeting Plasmodium Metabolism to Improve Antimalarial Drug Design

Title:Targeting Plasmodium Metabolism to Improve Antimalarial Drug Design

Volume: 17 Issue: 3

Author(s): Lluvia Ríos-Soto, Alfredo Téllez-Valencia, Mara Campos-Almazán, Jaime De Lira-Sánchez, Jessica Hernández-Rivera, Mónica Valdez-Solana, Marcelo Gómez Palacio-Gastélum, Jorge Cisneros-Martínez, Edna Méndez-Hernández, Claudia Avitia-Domínguez, Marie Sarabia-Sanchez, Alejandro Favela-Candia, Artemisa Luevano-De la Cruz, Alejandra Vázquez-Raygoza, Miriam Aguirre-Raudry, Irene Betancourt-Conde and Erick Sierra-Campos

Affiliation:

Keywords: Malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, enzyme inhibition, drug design.

Abstract: Malaria is one of the main infectious diseases in tropical developing countries and represents high morbidity and mortality rates nowadays. The principal etiological agent P. falciparum is transmitted through the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito. The issue has escalated due to the emergence of resistant strains to most of the antimalarials used for the treatment including Chloroquine, Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine, and recently Artemisinin derivatives, which has led to diminished effectiveness and by consequence increased the severity of epidemic outbreaks. Due to the lack of effective compounds to treat these drug-resistant strains, the discovery or development of novel anti-malaria drugs is important. In this context, one strategy has been to find inhibitors of enzymes, which play an important role for parasite survival. Today, promising results have been obtained in this regard, involving the entire P. falciparum metabolism. These inhibitors could serve as leads in the search of a new chemotherapy against malaria. This review focuses on the achievements in recent years with regard to inhibition of enzymes used as targets for drug design against malaria.

Cite this article as:

Ríos-Soto Lluvia, Téllez-Valencia Alfredo, Campos-Almazán Mara, De Lira-Sánchez Jaime, Hernández-Rivera Jessica, Valdez-Solana Mónica, Gómez Palacio-Gastélum Marcelo, Cisneros-Martínez Jorge, Méndez-Hernández Edna, Avitia-Domínguez Claudia, Sarabia-Sanchez Marie, Favela-Candia Alejandro, Luevano-De la Cruz Artemisa, Vázquez-Raygoza Alejandra, Aguirre-Raudry Miriam, Betancourt-Conde Irene and Sierra-Campos Erick, Targeting Plasmodium Metabolism to Improve Antimalarial Drug Design, Current Protein & Peptide Science 2016; 17 (3) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1389203717999160226180353