Identifying antiparasitic agents used to treat or prevent parasitic infections, especially malaria, sleeping sickness and leishmaniosis

摘要

Identification of agents (A) suitable for treatment of infections caused by mono- or poly-cellular parasites comprises (i) treating a test compound with a protein (I) that is involved in the 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate (dDXP) metabolic pathway (or its derivatives with equivalent activity) and (ii) selecting compounds that inhibit (I) or its derivatives. Independent claims are also included for the following: (a) proteins (II) encoded by approximately 3.8 kb (1b) or 3.7 kb (2b) sequences or by sequences that hybridize to (1b) or (2b), or their fragments that encode the mature protein; (b) proteins (III) encoded by approximately 1.5 kb (1a) or 1.5 kb (2a) sequences or by sequences that hybridize to (1a) or (2a) or their fragments that encode the mature protein; (c) (II), (III) and other proteins (IV) involved in the dDXP metabolic pathway isolated from parasite culture media or lysate by chromatography and electrophoresis; (d) (1a), (1b), (2a) and (2b) and sequences that hybridize with them or that would do so but for the degeneracy of the genetic code; (e) recombinant expression vector containing DNA (V) that encodes (II)-(IV) and expresses them in a transformed microorganism or eukaryotic cell, animal or plant; (f) host cells transformed with (V) and able to express (II)-(IV); (g) antibodies (Ab) raised against (II)-(IV); and (h) (A), or herbicides, identified using (I).