Update on drug development targeting parasite cysteine proteases.

The article discusses the cysteine proteases which are attractive targets for structure-based drug design because of their well-defined active site topology and mechanism of action, available high-throughput assays and known drugability. It states that newly developed drugs such as cathepsin S, cathepsin K and cathepsin B are entered in clinical trials for the treatment of psoriasis, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases and cancer.