Discovery and Genetic Validation of Chemotherapeutic Targets for Chagas' Disease.

ABSTRACT: There is an urgent need to develop new treatments for Chagas' disease. To identify drug targets, it is important to understand the basic biology of Trypanosoma cruzi, in particular with respect to the biological pathways or proteins that are essential for its survival within the host. This review provides a streamlined approach for identifying drug targets using freely available chemogenetic databases and outlines the relevant characteristics of an ideal chemotherapeutic target. Among those are their essentiality, druggability, availability of structural information, and selectivity. At the moment only 16 genes have been found as essential by gene disruption in T. cruzi. At the TDR Targets database, a chemogenomics resource for neglected diseases, information about published

SUBMITTER: Osorio-Mendez JF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6330712 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature