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- Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite.
- People with malaria often experience fever, chills, and flu-like illness.
- Malaria is caused by single-celled microorganisms of the Plasmodium group.
- Plasmodium species rely on glucose for energy supply during blood stage.
- Cutting the glucose uptake is a potential strategy for the development of antimalarial drugs.
- Plasmodium has a protein that transports glucose, and this protein is known to be essential for parasite growth and survival.
- In another study, compound 3361 (C3361) has been described to moderately inhibits this glucose transporter protein and suppresses the growth of the blood-stage parasites.
- This study present the crystal structures of the glucose transporter protein in complex with D-glucose and with the selective inhibitor C3361.
- Although both structures were blocked, binding of C3361 causes marked rearrangements that result in an additional pocket.
- This inhibitor-binding-induced pocket presents an opportunity for the rational design of the glucose transporter protein inhibitors.
- Among the designed C3361 derivatives, several exhibited improved inhibition of glucose transporter protein and cellular potency against the parasite with excellent selectivity to human GLUT1.
- GLUT1 facilitates the transport of glucose across the plasma membranes of mammalian cells.
- The findings serve as a proof of concept for the development of the next-generation antimalarial chemotherapeutics by simultaneously targeting the primary binding site and allosteric sites of the glucose transporter protein.
Sources:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.08.015
https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/malaria/index.html
“Malaria Fact sheet N°94”. WHO. March 2014. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26248369/
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.25.260232v1.full
Olson AL, Pessin JE (1996). “Structure, function, and regulation of the mammalian facilitative glucose transporter gene family”. Annual Review of Nutrition. 16: 235–56. doi:10.1146/annurev.nu.16.070196.001315. PMID 8839927
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