Publication
Title
Drug to genome to drug : discovery of new antiplasmodial compounds
Author
Abstract
The dominant strategy for discovery of new antimalarial drugs relies on cell-free assays on specific biochemical pathways of Plasmodium falciparum. However, it appears that screening directly on the parasite is a more rewarding approach. The drug to genome to drug approach consists of testing a small set of structural analogues of a drug acting on human proteins that have plasmodial orthologues. Both man and plasmodium possess cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases (PDEs) that are key players of cell homeostasis. We synthesized and tested 40 analogues of tadalafil, a human PDE5 inhibitor, on P. falciparum in culture and obtained potent inhibitors of parasite growth. We discuss the structure−activity relationships, which support the hypothesis that our compounds kill the parasite via inhibition of plasmodial PDE activity. We also prove that antiplasmodial derivatives inhibit the hydrolysis of cyclic nucleotides of the parasite, validating the cAMP/cGMP pathways as therapeutic targets against Plasmodium falciparum.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Journal of medicinal chemistry. - Washington, D.C., 1963, currens
Publication
Washington, D.C. : 2011
ISSN
0022-2623 [print]
1520-4804 [online]
DOI
10.1021/JM1014617
Volume/pages
54 :9 (2011) , p. 3222-3240
ISI
000290126800008
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 04.05.2011
Last edited 15.11.2022
To cite this reference