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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) prolyl-tRNA synthetase (ProRS) is one of the few chemical-genetically validated drug targets for malaria, yet highly selective inhibitors have not been described. In this paper, approximately 40,000 compounds were screened to identify compounds that selectively inhibit PfProRS enzyme activity vs. H. sapiens (Hs) ProRS. X-ray crystallography structures were solved for apo, as well as substrate, and inhibitor bound forms of PfProRS. We identified two new inhibitors of PfProRS that bind outside the active site. These two allosteric inhibitors showed >100X specificity for PfProRS compared to HsProRS, demonstrating this class of compounds could overcome the toxicity related to HsProRS inhibition by halofuginone and its analogs. Initial medicinal chemistry was performed on one of the two compounds, guided by the co-crystallography of the compound with PfProRS, and the results can instruct future medicinal chemistry work to optimize these promising new leads for drug development against malaria.

Biochemical and Structural Characterization of Selective Allosteric Inhibitors of the Plasmodium falciparum Drug Target, Prolyl-tRNA-synthetase.,Nakazawa Hewitt S, Dranow DM, Horst BG, Abendroth JA, Forte B, Hallyburton I, Jansen C, Baragana B, Choi R, Rivas KL, Hulverson MA, Dumais M, Edwards TE, Lorimer DD, Fairlamb AH, Gray DW, Read KD, Lehane AM, Kirk K, Myler PJ, Wernimont A, Walpole CS, Stacy R, Barrett LK, Gilbert IH, Van Voorhis WC ACS Infect Dis. 2016 Oct 31. PMID:27798837^[2]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.