Journal
MOLECULES
Volume 25, Issue 8, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/molecules25081980
Keywords
Leishmania; Trypanosoma; mammalian target of rapamycin; phosphoinositide 3-kinase; inhibitors
Funding
- National Research Foundation of Korea [NRF-2017M3A9G6068246, 2017R1D1A1B03033204]
- government of the Republic of Korea (MSIP)
- National Research Foundation of Korea [2017R1D1A1B03033204] Funding Source: Korea Institute of Science & Technology Information (KISTI), National Science & Technology Information Service (NTIS)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Kinetoplastid parasites, including Leishmania and Trypanosoma spp., are life threatening pathogens with a worldwide distribution. Next-generation therapeutics for treatment are needed as current treatments have limitations, such as toxicity and drug resistance. In this study, we examined the activities of established mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)/phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors against these tropical diseases. High-throughput screening of a library of 1742 bioactive compounds against intracellular L. donovani was performed, and seven mTOR/PI3K inhibitors were identified. Dose-dilution assays revealed that these inhibitors had half maximal effective concentration (EC50) values ranging from 0.14 to 13.44 mu M for L. donovani amastigotes and from 0.00005 to 8.16 mu M for T. brucei. The results of a visceral leishmaniasis mouse model indicated that treatment with Torin2, dactolisib, or NVP-BGT226 resulted in reductions of 35%, 53%, and 54%, respectively, in the numbers of liver parasites. In an acute T. brucei mouse model using NVP-BGT226 parasite numbers were reduced to under the limits of detection by five consecutive days of treatment. Multiple sequence and structural alignment results indicated high similarities between mTOR and kinetoplastid TORs; the inhibitors are predicted to bind in a similar manner. Taken together, these results indicated that the TOR pathways of parasites have potential for the discovery of novel targets and new potent inhibitors.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available