Open AccessPhosphodiesterase inhibitors as a new generation of antiprotozoan drugs: exploiting the benefit of enzymes that are highly conserved between host and parasite
Author(s) -
Thomas Seebeck,
Geert Jan Sterk,
Hengming Ke
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
future medicinal chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.708
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1756-8927
pISSN - 1756-8919
DOI - 10.4155/fmc.11.77
Subject(s) - phosphodiesterase , computational biology , biology , protozoan parasite , disease , human disease , pharmacology , medicine , enzyme , biochemistry , parasite hosting , computer science , pathology , world wide web
Protozoan infections remain a major unsolved medical problem in many parts of our world. A major obstacle to their treatment is the blatant lack of medication that is affordable, effective, safe and easy to administer. For some of these diseases, including human sleeping sickness, very few compounds are available, many of them old and all of them fraught with toxic side effects. We explore a new concept for developing new-generation antiprotozoan drugs that are based on phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors. Such inhibitors are already used extensively in human pharmacology. Given the high degree of structural similarity between the human and the protozoan PDEs, the vast expertise available in the human field can now be applied to developing disease-specific PDE inhibitors as new antiprotozoan drugs.