Computational discovery of potential therapeutic agents against brain-eating amoeba (Naegleria fowleri).

ABSTRACT: Naegleria fowleri is a human and animal pathogen well-known for its ability to digest neurons and astrocytes of the host's brain, causing a haemorrhagic and necrotizing inflammation called Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis. Although infections are rare, the mortality rate is over 97%, due to both the non-specificity of the symptoms and the absence of an effective treatment. In this work we employed bioinformatics tools to evaluate the possibility of treating the infection with tubulin-targeting compounds, which we regard as the most promising approach given the unclear view on the pathogenic factors in N. fowleri, the divergence of the amoeba's tubulins from the human counterparts, and how well-established microtubule-targeting therapies are in clinical practices. The amoeba's tubulin se

SUBMITTER: Zattoni J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12250431 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature