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Background:Diarrhoea remains one of the leading causes of childhood mortality globally. Recent epidemiological studies conducted in low-middle income countries (LMICs) identified Shigella spp. as the first and second most predominant agent of dysentery and moderate diarrhoea, respectively. Antimicrobial therapy is often necessary for Shigella infections; however, we are reaching a crisis point with efficacious antimicrobials. The rapid emergence of resistance against existing antimicrobials in Shigella spp. poses a serious global health problem.Methods:Aiming to identify alternative antimicrobial chemicals with activity against antimicrobial resistant Shigella, we initiated a collaborative academia-industry drug discovery project, applying high-throughput phenotypic screening across broad chemical diversity and followed a lead compound through in vitro and in vivo characterisation.Results:We identified several known antimicrobial compound classes with antibacterial activity against Shigella. These compounds included the oral carbapenem Tebipenem, which was found to be highly potent against broadly susceptible Shigella and contemporary MDR variants for which we perform detailed pre-clinical testing. Additional in vitro screening demonstrated that Tebipenem had activity against a wide range of other non-Shigella enteric bacteria. Cognisant of the risk for the development of resistance against monotherapy, we identified synergistic behaviour of two different drug combinations incorporating Tebipenem. We found the orally bioavailable prodrug (Tebipenem pivoxil) had ideal pharmacokinetic properties for treating enteric pathogens and was effective in clearing the gut of infecting organisms when administered to Shigella-infected mice and gnotobiotic piglets.Conclusions:Our data highlight the emerging antimicrobial resistance crisis and shows that Tebipenem pivoxil (licenced for paediatric respiratory tract infections in Japan) should be accelerated into human trials and could be repurposed as an effective treatment for severe diarrhoea caused by MDR Shigella and other enteric pathogens in LMICs.Funding:Tres Cantos Open Lab Foundation (projects TC239 and TC246), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (grant OPP1172483) and Wellcome (215515/Z/19/Z).

New drugs that target Plasmodium species, the causative agents of malaria, are needed. The enzyme N-myristoyltransferase (NMT) is an essential protein, which catalyzes the myristoylation of protein substrates, often to mediate membrane targeting. We screened ∼1.8 million small molecules for activity against Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) NMT. Hits were triaged based on potency and physicochemical properties and further tested against P. vivax and Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) NMTs. We assessed the activity of hits against human NMT1 and NMT2 and discarded compounds with low selectivity indices. We identified 23 chemical classes specific for the inhibition of Plasmodium NMTs over human NMTs, including multiple novel scaffolds. Cocrystallization of P. vivax NMT with one compound revealed peptide binding pocket binding. Other compounds show a range of potential modes of action. Our data provide insight into the activity of a collection of selective inhibitors of Plasmodium NMT and serve as a starting point for subsequent medicinal chemistry efforts.

Drug repositioning offers an effective alternative to de novo drug design to tackle the urgent need for novel antimalarial treatments. The antiamoebic compound emetine dihydrochloride has been identified as a potent in vitro inhibitor of the multidrug-resistant strain K1 of Plasmodium falciparum (50% inhibitory concentration [IC50], 47 nM ± 2.1 nM [mean ± standard deviation]). Dehydroemetine, a synthetic analogue of emetine dihydrochloride, has been reported to have less-cardiotoxic effects than emetine., Drug repositioning offers an effective alternative to de novo drug design to tackle the urgent need for novel antimalarial treatments. The antiamoebic compound emetine dihydrochloride has been identified as a potent in vitro inhibitor of the multidrug-resistant strain K1 of Plasmodium falciparum (50% inhibitory concentration [IC50], 47 nM ± 2.1 nM [mean ± standard deviation]). Dehydroemetine, a synthetic analogue of emetine dihydrochloride, has been reported to have less-cardiotoxic effects than emetine. The structures of two diastereomers of dehydroemetine were modeled on the published emetine binding site on the cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structure with PDB code 3J7A (P. falciparum 80S ribosome in complex with emetine), and it was found that (−)-R,S-dehydroemetine mimicked the bound pose of emetine more closely than did (−)-S,S-dehydroisoemetine. (−)-R,S-dehydroemetine (IC50 71.03 ± 6.1 nM) was also found to be highly potent against the multidrug-resistant K1 strain of P. falciparum compared with (−)-S,S-dehydroisoemetine (IC50, 2.07 ± 0.26 μM), which loses its potency due to the change of configuration at C-1′. In addition to its effect on the asexual erythrocytic stages of P. falciparum, the compound exhibited gametocidal properties with no cross-resistance against any of the multidrug-resistant strains tested. Drug interaction studies showed (−)-R,S-dehydroemetine to have synergistic antimalarial activity with atovaquone and proguanil. Emetine dihydrochloride and (−)-R,S-dehydroemetine failed to show any inhibition of the hERG potassium channel and displayed activity affecting the mitochondrial membrane potential, indicating a possible multimodal mechanism of action.

Malaria remains a major global health problem. In 2015 alone, more than 200 million cases of malaria were reported, and more than 400,000 deaths occurred. Since 2010, emerging resistance to current front-line ACTs (artemisinin combination therapies) has been detected in endemic countries. Therefore, there is an urgency for new therapies based on novel modes of action, able to relieve symptoms as fast as the artemisinins and/or block malaria transmission. During the past few years, the antimalarial community has focused their efforts on phenotypic screening as a pragmatic approach to identify new hits. Optimization efforts on several chemical series have been successful, and clinical candidates have been identified. In addition, recent advances in genetics and proteomics have led to the target deconvolution of phenotypic clinical candidates. New mechanisms of action will also be critical to overcome resistance and reduce attrition. Therefore, a complementary strategy focused on identifying well-validated targets to start hit identification programs is essential to reinforce the clinical pipeline. Leveraging published data, we have assessed the status quo of the current antimalarial target portfolio with a focus on the blood stage clinical disease. From an extensive list of reported Plasmodium targets, we have defined triage criteria. These criteria consider genetic, pharmacological, and chemical validation, as well as tractability/doability, and safety implications. These criteria have provided a quantitative score that has led us to prioritize those targets with the highest probability to deliver successful and differentiated new drugs.

New drugs that target

Introduction:\ud Despite the positive effects of intervention strategies that include insecticide-impregnated bed nets and artemisinin-based drug therapies, malaria still kills nearly 500,000 people per year and infects more than 200 million individuals globally. This, together with the emerging resistance of the parasite to frontline antimalarials, means that there is an urgent need for novel treatments that not only offer a cure for malaria but also prevent transmission. We show that by inhibiting an essential protein kinase that is a key regulator of RNA processing, we are able to kill the parasite in the blood and liver stages as well as prevent the development of the sexual-stage gametocytes, thereby blocking transmission to the mosquito.\ud \ud Rationale:\ud Our group has previously published a list of 36 protein kinases that are essential for blood-stage survival of the most virulent form of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Here, we focused on one of these protein kinases from the P. falciparum CLK (cyclin-dependent–like kinase) family, PfCLK3, and reasoned that inhibition of this protein kinase by a small drug-like molecule would be effective at killing blood-stage parasites. We further hypothesized that because PfCLK3 plays a key role in RNA splicing, inhibition of this kinase would be effective at killing the parasite at all stages of the life cycle where RNA splicing is required. This would include blood, liver, and sexual stages.\ud \ud Results:\ud By screening a focused library of nearly 30,000 compounds, we identified a probe molecule that selectively inhibited PfCLK3 and killed blood-stage P. falciparum. Using a combination of evolved resistance and chemogenetics, we established that our probe molecule had parasiticidal activity by inhibition of PfCLK3. We further showed that inhibition of PfCLK3 in parasites resulted in a reduction in more than 400 gene transcripts known to be essential for parasite survival. The finding that the vast majority of the genes down-regulated by PfCLK3 inhibition contained introns supported the notion that inhibition of PfCLK3 killed the malaria parasite by preventing the splicing of essential parasite genes. Because there is a high degree of homology between orthologs of CLK3 in other Plasmodium species, it might be expected that our probe molecule would both inhibit CLK3 contained in other malaria parasite species and have effective parasiticidal activity in these parasites. This was indeed found to be the case, with our molecule showing potent inhibition of CLK3 from P. vivax and P. berghei as well as killing the blood stages of P. berghei and P. knowlesi. Furthermore, we demonstrated that CLK3 inhibition also kills liver-stage P. berghei parasites and prevents P. berghei infection in mice. Finally, we showed that inhibition of PfCLK3 prevents the development of P. falciparum gametocytes, thereby blocking the infection of mosquitoes.\ud \ud Conclusion:\ud We found that inhibition of the essential malaria protein kinase CLK3 can kill multiple species of malaria parasites at the blood stage as well as killing liver-stage parasites and blocking transmission of the parasite to mosquitoes by preventing gametocyte development. In this way, we validate Plasmodium spp. CLK3 as a target that can offer prophylactic, curative, and transmission-blocking potential.

Natural products have played a pivotal role in malaria chemotherapy progressing from quinine and artemisinin to ozonide-based compounds. Many of these natural products have served as template for the design and development of antimalarial drugs currently in the clinic or in the development phase. In this review, we will detail those privileged scaffolds that have guided medicinal chemistry efforts yielding molecules that have reached the clinic.

The requirement for next-generation antimalarials to be both curative and transmission-blocking necessitates the identification of previously undiscovered druggable molecular pathways. We identified a selective inhibitor of the

Significance Protozoal proteasome is a validated target for antimalarial drug development, but species selectivity of reported inhibitors is suboptimal. Here we identify inhibitors with improved selectivity for malaria proteasome β5 subunit over each active subunit of human proteasomes. These compounds kill the parasite in each stage of its life cycle. They interact synergistically with a β2 inhibitor and with artemisinin. Resistance to the β5 inhibitor arose through a point mutation in the nonproteolytic β6 subunit. The same mutation made the mutant strain more sensitive to a β2 inhibitor and less fit to withstand irradiation. These findings reveal complex interplay among proteasome subunits and introduce the prospect that combined inhibition of β2 and β5 subunits can afford synergy and thwart resistance., We describe noncovalent, reversible asparagine ethylenediamine (AsnEDA) inhibitors of the Plasmodium falciparum proteasome (Pf20S) β5 subunit that spare all active subunits of human constitutive and immuno-proteasomes. The compounds are active against erythrocytic, sexual, and liver-stage parasites, against parasites resistant to current antimalarials, and against P. falciparum strains from patients in Africa. The β5 inhibitors synergize with a β2 inhibitor in vitro and in mice and with artemisinin. P. falciparum selected for resistance to an AsnEDA β5 inhibitor surprisingly harbored a point mutation in the noncatalytic β6 subunit. The β6 mutant was resistant to the species-selective Pf20S β5 inhibitor but remained sensitive to the species-nonselective β5 inhibitors bortezomib and carfilzomib. Moreover, resistance to the Pf20S β5 inhibitor was accompanied by increased sensitivity to a Pf20S β2 inhibitor. Finally, the β5 inhibitor-resistant mutant had a fitness cost that was exacerbated by irradiation. Thus, used in combination, multistage-active inhibitors of the Pf20S β5 and β2 subunits afford synergistic antimalarial activity with a potential to delay the emergence of resistance to artemisinins and each other.

Enantiomerically pure THPPs are useful pharmacological agents in relevant therapeutic areas such as tuberculosis, osteoporosis and hepatitis C. Typically resolved by preparative chiral HPLC, in this work the catalytic approach – via hydrolase-catalyzed kinetic resolution – has been demonstrated for the first time. After biocatalytic successful proof-of-concept, future opportunities for protein engineering and process set-up appear.

SUMMARYThe emergence of resistance to artemisinins and the renewed efforts to eradicate malaria demand the urgent development of new drugs. In this endeavour, the evaluation of efficacy in animal models is often a go/no go decision assay in drug discovery. This important role relies on the capability of animal models to assess the disposition, toxicology and efficacy of drugs in a single test. Although the relative merits of each efficacy model of malaria as human surrogate have been extensively discussed, there are no critical analyses on the use of such models in current drug discovery. In this article, we intend to analyse how efficacy models are used to discover new antimalarial drugs. Our analysis indicates that testing drug efficacy is often the last assay in each discovery stage and the experimental designs utilized are not optimized to expedite decision-making and inform clinical development. In light of this analysis, we propose new ways to accelerate drug discovery using efficacy models.

Enantiomerically pure β‐arylalkyl carboxylic acids are important synthetic intermediates for the preparation of a wide range of compounds with biological and pharmacological activities. A library of 83 enzymes isolated from the metagenome was searched for activity in the hydrolysis of ethyl esters of three racemic phenylalkyl carboxylic acids by a microtiter plate‐based screening using a pH‐indicator assay. Out of these, 20 enzymes were found to be active and were subjected to analytical scale biocatalysis in order to determine their enantioselectivity. The most enantioselective and also enantiocomplementary biocatalysts were then used for preparative scale reactions. Thus, both enantiomers of each of the three phenylalkyl carboxylic acids studied could be obtained in excellent optical purity and high yields.

Lipase-catalyzed esterifications in biphasic media (heptane–water, 1:1) were conducted by using Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase (TLL) as biocatalyst. Different carboxylic acids (from acetic to lauric) were thus esterified with 1-butanol at different pH values (2–10). For all carboxylic acids tested, pH optima for the enzymatic esterifications were ca. 3–5, in clear agreement with previous literature, and quite different from optima pH of TLL in hydrolytic reactions (8–11). Interestingly, the interval of pH in which TLL was active in esterifications, varied markedly depending on the carboxylic acid. Thus, for long-chain acids (i.e. lauric), such pH interval was much wider than for short-chain carboxylic acids (i.e. acetic). To understand this effect, simple pKa values of carboxylic acids, retrieved from open literature, are not sufficient, since those values are measured in pure water. When a second phase is added, aspects related to partition coefficient of each carboxylic acid need to be considered as well, thus leading to the apparent pKa concept. Herein we performed theoretical calculations to obtain such app pKa of each carboxylic acid. When such calculations were compared with the pH interval, a clear correlation was observed. Overall, results confirm that lipases accept only the protonated form of the carboxylic acid (R–COOH) during esterifications in biphasic media.

Natural products have played a pivotal role in malaria chemotherapy progressing from quinine and artemisinin to ozonide-based compounds. Many of these natural products have served as template for the design and development of antimalarial drugs currently in the clinic or in the development phase. In this review, we will detail those privileged scaffolds that have guided medicinal chemistry efforts yielding molecules that have reached the clinic.

The highly thermostable esterase from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrobaculum calidifontis VA1 (PestE) shows high enantioselectivity (E > 100) in the kinetic resolution of racemic chiral carboxylic acids, but little selectivity towards acetates of tertiary alcohols (E = 2–4). To explain these unique properties, its crystal structure has been determined at 2.0 A resolution. The enzyme is a member of the hormone-sensitive lipase group (group H) of the esterase/lipase superfamily on the basis of the amino acid sequence identity. The PestE structure shows a canonical α/β-hydrolase fold as core domain with a cap structure at the C-terminal end of the β-sheet. A tetramer in the crystal packing is formed of two dimers; the dimeric form is observed in solution. Conserved dimers and even tetramers are found in other group H proteins. The amino acid residues Ser157, His284, and Asp254 form the catalytic triad, which is typically found in α/β-hydrolases. The oxyanion hole is composed of Gly85 and Gly86 within the conserved sequence motif HGGG(M,F,W) (amino acid residues 83–87) and Ala158. With the elucidated structure, experimental results about enantioselectivity towards the two model substrate classes (as exemplified for 3-phenylbutanoic acid ethyl ester and 1,1,1-trifluoro-2-phenylbut-3-yn-2-yl acetate) could be explained by molecular modeling. For both enantiomers of the tertiary alcohol, orientations in two binding pockets were obtained without significant energy differences corresponding to the observed low enantioselectivity due to missing steric repulsions. In contrast, for the carboxylic acid ester, two different orientations with significant energy differences for each enantiomer were found matching the high E values.