3mb-pp1 and Toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasma gondii severely threaten the health of immunocompromised patients and pregnant women as this parasite can cause several disease, including brain and eye disease. Current treatment for toxoplasmosis commonly have high cytotoxic side effects on host and require long durations ranging from one week to more than one year. The regiments lack efficacy to eradicate T. gondii tissue cysts to cure chromic infection results in the needs for long treatment and relapsing disease. In addition, there has not been approved drugs for treating the pregnant women infected by T. gondii. Moreover, Toxoplasma vaccine researches face a wide variety of challenges. Developing high efficient and low toxic agents against T. gondii is urgent and important. Over the last decade, tremendous progress have been made in identifying and developing novel compounds for the treatment of toxoplasmosis. This review summarized and discussed recent advances between 2009 and 2019 in exploring effective agents against T. gondii from five aspects of drug discovery.

Topics: Animals; Antiprotozoal Agents; Drug Discovery; Female; Humans; Pregnancy; Toxoplasma; Toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasma gondii is sensitive to bulky pyrazolo [3,4-d] pyrimidine (PP) inhibitors due to the presence of a Gly gatekeeper in the essential calcium dependent protein kinase 1 (CDPK1). Here we synthesized a number of new derivatives of 3-methyl-benzyl-PP (3-MB-PP, or 1). The potency of PP analogues in inhibiting CDPK1 enzyme activity in vitro (low nM IC(50) values) and blocking parasite growth in host cell monolayers in vivo (low μM EC(50) values) were highly correlated and occurred in a CDPK1-specific manner. Chemical modification of the PP scaffold to increase half-life in the presence of microsomes in vitro led to identification of compounds with enhanced stability while retaining activity. Several of these more potent compounds were able to prevent lethal infection with T. gondii in the mouse model. Collectively, the strategies outlined here provide a route for development of more effective compounds for treatment of toxoplasmosis and perhaps related parasitic diseases.

Topics: Animals; Base Sequence; Disease Models, Animal; DNA Primers; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Mice; Protein Kinase Inhibitors; Protein Kinases; Small Molecule Libraries; Toxoplasma; Toxoplasmosis