Substrate and Inhibitor Specificity of the Plasmodium berghei Equilibrative Nucleoside Transporter Type 1.

ABSTRACT: Malaria is a critical public health issue in the tropical world, causing extensive morbidity and mortality. Infection by unicellular, obligate intracellular Plasmodium parasites causes malaria. The emergence of resistance to current antimalarial drugs necessitates the development of novel therapeutics. A potential novel drug target is the purine import transporter. Because Plasmodium parasites are purine auxotrophic, they must import purines from their host to fulfill metabolic requirements. They import purines via equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (ENT1) homologs. Recently, we used a yeast-based high-throughput screen to identify inhibitors of the P. falciparum ENT1 (PfENT1) that kill P. falciparum parasites in culture. P. berghei infection of mice is an animal model for human malari

SUBMITTER: Arora A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4885503 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature