Poster Presentation 9th General Meeting of the International Proteolysis Society 2015

A two-pronged attack: dual inhibition of plasmodium falciparum M1 and M17 metalloaminopeptidases by a novel series of hydroxamic acid-based inhibitors. (#148)

Nyssa Drinkwater 1 , Shailesh Mistry 2 , Natalie Vinh 2 , Komagal Sivaraman 1 , Marcin Drag 3 , Vicky Avery 4 , Peter Scammells 2 , Sheena McGowan 1
  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  2. Medicinal Chemistry, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  3. Wroclaw University of Technology, Wroclaw, Poland
  4. Griffith University, Nathan, QLD, Australia

Plasmodium parasites, the causative agents of malaria, have developed resistance to most of our current antimalarial therapies, including artemisinin combination therapies which are widely described as our last line of defense. Antimalarial agents with a novel mode of action are urgently required. Two Plasmodium falciparum aminopeptidases, PfA-M1 and PfA-M17, play crucial roles in the erythrocytic stage of infection, and have been validated as potential antimalarial targets. Using compound-bound crystal structures of both enzymes, we have used a structure-guided approach to develop a novel series of inhibitors capable of potent inhibition of both PfA-M1 and PfA-M17 activity, and parasite growth in culture. Here we describe the design, synthesis, and evaluation of a series of hydroxamic acid-based inhibitors, and demonstrate the compounds to be exciting new leads for the development of novel antimalarial therapeutics.