Transition-State-Guided Drug Design for Treatment of Parasitic Neglected Tropical Diseases

Many of the deadliest neglected tropical diseases are caused by protozoan and helminthic parasites. These organisms have evolved several enzymes to exploit their host’s metabolic resources and evade immune responses. Because these essential proteins are absent in humans, they are targets for antiparasitic drug development. Despite decades of investigation, no therapy has been successful in the eradication of these diseases, so new approaches are desired. Chemically stable analogues of the transition states of enzymatic reactions are often potent inhibitors, and several examples of clinically effective compounds are known for other diseases. The design of transition-state analogues is aided by structural models of the transition state, which are obtained by complementing experimental measurement of kinetic isotope effects with theoretical calculations. Such transition-state-guided inhibitor design has been demonstrated for human, bovine, malarial, and trypanosomal enzymes of the purine salvage pathway, including purine nucleoside phosphorylase, nucleoside hydrolases, and adenosine deaminase. Cysteine proteases, trans-sialidase, 1-deoxy-d-xylulose-5-phosphate reductoisomerase, and trypanothione synthetase are presented as additional candidates for application of transition-state analysis with the goal of identifying new leads for the treatment of parasitic neglected tropical diseases.