Achilles heel of the malaria pathogen discovered

Researchers have found an Achilles heel of the malaria pathogen

03/12/2014

Swiss researchers have found a Achilles heel of the malaria pathogen with the help of a supercomputer. This allowed the scientists to identify a new type of drug that can destroy the pathogen while conserving human red blood cells.

Achilles heel of the malaria pathogen
Each year, around 300 million people contract malaria and about half a million children die every year. Only recently, results of studies by US scientists have been published, which warn against the spread of malaria by global warming. All the more encouraging are messages that address the progress in research into the dangerous tropical disease. With the aid of a supercomputer, Geneva and Basel researchers have discovered an Achilles heel of the malaria pathogen. This enabled the scientists to identify a new type of drug that can destroy the pathogen while conserving human red blood cells.

Pathogen of the most dangerous malaria form
As the University of Geneva announced on Tuesday, the pathogen of the most dangerous malaria form, Plasmodium falciparum, can rapidly develop drug resistance. The team led by Didier Picard from the University of Geneva therefore started on a protein that helps the pathogen thereby. The so-called Heat Shock Protein 90 (HSP90) protects cells from stress and occurs in all organisms, including humans. HSP90 protects Plasmodium from the fever attacks that the pathogen itself triggers, and helps it mature in human red blood cells. Doctoral student Tai Wang used a supercomputer to study the three-dimensional structure of HSP90 for potential drug targets. As the researchers now in the „Journal of Medicinal Chemistry“ In fact, he found a docking point for inhibitors that does not exist in the human counterpart of the protein.

Database of one million chemical substances
The PhD student then had the computer scour a virtual database of over one million chemical substances to find those who could fit into that site and found five candidates. The scientists tested them in the test tube and found that they are toxic to Plasmodium, but not to the red blood cells. As the University of Geneva wrote in a statement, the researchers now want to further develop these so-called 7-azaindole in order to be able to do clinical tests. Also involved in the work were colleagues from the Ecole de Pharmacie Genève-Lausanne and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel. (Sb)

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