Authors

Discussion

Malaria is a life threatening infectious disease caused by a protozoan belonging to the genus Plasmodium. There were 198 million malaria cases globally in 2013 with an estimated 584,000 deaths.

With resistance reported in all categories of anti-malarial drugs, the need for a new class of affordable anti-malarial is an urgent priority to sustain recent gains in malaria control. Previous studies have identified a protein translation inhibitor, Emetine as a potent anti-malarial drug but it also has cardio-toxic side effects. Recent studies by Wong et al., reported the target binding site of emetine on the 40s ribosomal protein.

The project has used Modelling to predict the polarity of the binding pocket. Two synthetic analogues of emetine SALF1 and SALF2 are modelled on the 40S small subunit of 80S Ribosome and in-silico methods have been employed for de novo drug design to identify compounds capable of retaining the anti-malarial potency but with reduced toxic side-effects.

Virtual screening provides an inexpensive alternative to Experimental high throughput screening which requires huge investment of time and resources. The project includes virtual screening of FDA approved library of drugs against the ribosomal binding site of emetine to fast-track drug discovery. The results will be used to identify synergies and propose anti-malarial combination therapies for emetine and its synthetic analogues.