Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 20, Issue 25, 2013

Peptidases can be inhibited by natural or synthetic small-molecule compounds, or by gene-encoded, proteinaceous inhibitors. Small-molecule peptidase inhibitors have been in the spotlight of researchers and pharmaceutical companies for many years. The studies concerning gene-encoded inhibitors are less frequent. The last decade has seen a boom of fungal genomics followed by extensive bioinformatic analyses Read More

New drug targets for the development of antimalarial drugs have emerged after the unveiling of the Plasmodium falciparum genome in 2002. Potential antimalarial drug targets can be broadly classified into three categories according to their function in the parasite’s life cycle: (i) biosynthesis, (ii) membrane transport and signaling, and (iii) hemoglobin catabolism. The latter plays a key role, as inhibition of hemoglo Read More

During the last decade, de novo drug discovery approaches have come into focus due to the increased number of parasite pathogen genomes sequenced and the subsequent availability of genome-scale functional datasets. In order to prioritize target proteins, these approaches consider traits commonly thought to be desirable in a drug target, including essentiality, druggability (whether drug-like molecules are likely to int Read More

Protease function is essential to many biological systems and processes. In parasites, proteases are essential for host tissue degradation, immune evasion, and nutrition acquisition. Helminths (worms) depend on several classes of proteases for development, host tissue invasion and migration, and for degradation of host hemoglobin and serum proteins. The protozoa, which cause malaria, depend on both cysteine and aspartic Read More

The trypanosomatids Trypanosoma cruzi, Leishmania spp. and Trypanosoma brucei spp. cause Chagas disease, leishmaniasis and human African trypanosomiasis, respectively. It is estimated that over 10 million people worldwide suffer from these neglected diseases, posing enormous social and economic problems in endemic areas. There are no vaccines to prevent these infections and chemotherapies are not adequate. Thi Read More

Aspartic peptidases are proteolytic enzymes present in many organisms like vertebrates, plants, fungi, protozoa and in some retroviruses such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). These enzymes are involved in important metabolic processes in microorganisms/virus and play major roles in infectious diseases. Although few studies have been performed in order to identify and characterize aspartic peptidase in trypanosom Read More

Limitations associated with the production cost, metabolic instability, side-effects, resistance and poor pharmacokinetics of organic protease inhibitors (PIs), which form an essential component of the front line HAART treatment for HIV, have fuelled efforts into finding novel, transition metal-based alternatives. Some of the attractive features of metalbased therapeutics include synthetic simplicity, solubility control, redo Read More

Parasitic diseases caused by pathogenic protozoa remain a challenge for public health. Despite efforts to control transmission, to improve early diagnosis and to optimize patient care, millions of infected people, mainly in poor areas of the globe, develop debilitating pathologies that are often fatal. For most of those disorders, the current treatments are greatly unsatisfactory and the continuous search for alternative chemothe Read More

The treatment for both leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis, which are severe human infections caused by trypanosomatids belonging to Leishmania and Trypanosoma genera, respectively, is extremely limited because of concerns of toxicity and efficacy with the available anti-protozoan drugs, as well as the emergence of drug resistance. Consequently, the urgency for the discovery of new trypanosomatid targets and novel bioacti Read More