Repurposing of approved drugs from the human pharmacopoeia to target Wolbachia endosymbionts of onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis.

ABSTRACT: Lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis are debilitating diseases caused by parasitic filarial nematodes infecting around 150 million people throughout the tropics with more than 1.5 billion at risk. As with other neglected tropical diseases, classical drug-discovery and development is lacking and a 50 year programme of macrofilaricidal discovery failed to deliver a drug which can be used as a public health tool. Recently, antibiotic targeting of filarial Wolbachia, an essential bacterial symbiont, has provided a novel drug treatment for filariasis with macrofilaricidal activity, although the current gold-standard, doxycycline, is unsuitable for use in mass drug administration (MDA). The anti-Wolbachia (A·WOL) Consortium aims to identify novel anti-Wolbachia drugs, compounds or combination

SUBMITTER: Johnston KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4266796 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature