Abstract
The research on protein phosphorylation by kinases in various cellular processes is increasing significantly for the identification of kinase-based drugs. This is due to the fact that several kinasebased (anticancer) drug candidates have already been approved for clinical use and some are undergoing clinical trials as well. This scenario has amplified the momentum for the discovery of kinase-based drugs for other health problems such as hypertension, inflammation, and malaria. In this background, we reviewed here the research envisaged on the molecular modeling studies for inhibitors of Plasmodial protein kinases (PPKs) in the context of antimalarial drug design. This article focuses on modeling studies performed on the inhibitors of various malarial protein kinases such PfRIO-2 kinases (Plasmodium falciparum right open reading frame-2 protein kinase), thymidylate kinases (PfTMPK), cyclin-dependent protein kinases (Pfmrk), protein kinase-5 (PfPK-5), calcium dependent protein kinases (PfCDPK-1), glycogen synthase kinase-3 (PfGSK-3) and protein kinase-7 (PfPK-7). The presented information would be helpful for the researchers working on the identification of novel antimalarial kinase inhibitors in the context of widespread antimalarial resistance.
Keywords: Antimalarial resistance, Plasmodial protein kinases, P. falciparum, Homology modeling, Docking, QSAR
Graphical Abstract
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