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de Carvalho LP, Niepoth E, Mavraj-Husejni A, Kreidenweiss A, Herrmann J, Müller R, Knaab T, Burckhardt BB, Kurz T, Held J. Quantification of Plasmodium falciparum HRP-2 as an alternative method to [ 3H]hypoxanthine incorporation to measure the parasite reduction ratio in vitro. Int J Antimicrob Agents 2023; 62:106894. [PMID: 37348620 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2023.106894] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2023] [Revised: 06/06/2023] [Accepted: 06/10/2023] [Indexed: 06/24/2023]
Abstract
In the absence of a highly efficacious vaccine, chemotherapy remains the cornerstone to control malaria morbidity and mortality. The threat of the emergence of parasites resistant to artemisinin-based combination therapies highlights the need for new antimalarial drugs ideally with superior properties. The killing rate reflects the speed of action of antimalarial drugs, which can be measured in vitro through the parasite reduction ratio (PRR) assay to shortlist interesting candidates. As a standard, the in vitro PRR assay is performed by measuring [3H]hypoxanthine incorporation of Plasmodium falciparum. This methodology is restricted to specialised laboratories owing to the handling of radioactive material. In this work, we describe a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to detect P. falciparum histidine-rich protein 2 (HRP-2) as an alternative methodology to assess the PRR. We first validated the methodology with established antimalarial drugs (artesunate, chloroquine, pyrimethamine and atovaquone) by comparing our results with previous results of the [3H]hypoxanthine incorporation readout provided by an expert laboratory, and subsequently assessed the speed of action of four new antimalarial candidates (compound 22, chlorotonil A, boromycin and ivermectin). The HRP-2 PRR assay achieved comparable results to the [3H]hypoxanthine incorporation readout in terms of parasite growth rate over time, lag phase and parasite clearance time. In addition, parasite growth following drug exposure was quantified after 7, 14, 21 and 28 days of recovery time. In conclusion, the PRR assay based on HRP-2 is similar to [3H]hypoxanthine in determining a drug's parasite killing rate and can be widely used in all research laboratories.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Elena Niepoth
- Institute of Tropical Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | | | - Andrea Kreidenweiss
- Institute of Tropical Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Centre de Recherches Médicales de Lambaréné, Lambaréné, Gabon; German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Jennifer Herrmann
- German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Braunschweig, Germany; Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland, Saarbrücken, Germany
| | - Rolf Müller
- German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Braunschweig, Germany; Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland, Saarbrücken, Germany
| | - Tanja Knaab
- Institute of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Bjoern B Burckhardt
- Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Thomas Kurz
- Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Jana Held
- Institute of Tropical Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Centre de Recherches Médicales de Lambaréné, Lambaréné, Gabon; German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Braunschweig, Germany.
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Kümpornsin K, Kochakarn T, Yeo T, Okombo J, Luth MR, Hoshizaki J, Rawat M, Pearson RD, Schindler KA, Mok S, Park H, Uhlemann AC, Jana GP, Maity BC, Laleu B, Chenu E, Duffy J, Moliner Cubel S, Franco V, Gomez-Lorenzo MG, Gamo FJ, Winzeler EA, Fidock DA, Chookajorn T, Lee MCS. Generation of a mutator parasite to drive resistome discovery in Plasmodium falciparum. Nat Commun 2023; 14:3059. [PMID: 37244916 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38774-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2022] [Accepted: 05/12/2023] [Indexed: 05/29/2023] Open
Abstract
In vitro evolution of drug resistance is a powerful approach for identifying antimalarial targets, however, key obstacles to eliciting resistance are the parasite inoculum size and mutation rate. Here we sought to increase parasite genetic diversity to potentiate resistance selections by editing catalytic residues of Plasmodium falciparum DNA polymerase δ. Mutation accumulation assays reveal a ~5-8 fold elevation in the mutation rate, with an increase of 13-28 fold in drug-pressured lines. Upon challenge with the spiroindolone PfATP4-inhibitor KAE609, high-level resistance is obtained more rapidly and at lower inocula than wild-type parasites. Selections also yield mutants with resistance to an "irresistible" compound, MMV665794 that failed to yield resistance with other strains. We validate mutations in a previously uncharacterised gene, PF3D7_1359900, which we term quinoxaline resistance protein (QRP1), as causal for resistance to MMV665794 and a panel of quinoxaline analogues. The increased genetic repertoire available to this "mutator" parasite can be leveraged to drive P. falciparum resistome discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Krittikorn Kümpornsin
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK
- Calibr, Division of the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Theerarat Kochakarn
- The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden and Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
| | - Tomas Yeo
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - John Okombo
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Madeline R Luth
- Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | | | - Mukul Rawat
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK
| | | | - Kyra A Schindler
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Sachel Mok
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
- Center for Malaria Therapeutics and Antimicrobial Resistance, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Heekuk Park
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Anne-Catrin Uhlemann
- Center for Malaria Therapeutics and Antimicrobial Resistance, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Gouranga P Jana
- TCG Lifesciences Private Limited, Salt-lake Electronics Complex, Kolkata, India
| | - Bikash C Maity
- TCG Lifesciences Private Limited, Salt-lake Electronics Complex, Kolkata, India
| | - Benoît Laleu
- Medicines for Malaria Venture, International Centre Cointrin, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Elodie Chenu
- Medicines for Malaria Venture, International Centre Cointrin, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - James Duffy
- Medicines for Malaria Venture, International Centre Cointrin, Geneva, Switzerland
| | | | - Virginia Franco
- Global Health Medicines R&D, GlaxoSmithKline, Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain
| | | | | | - Elizabeth A Winzeler
- Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - David A Fidock
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
- Center for Malaria Therapeutics and Antimicrobial Resistance, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Thanat Chookajorn
- The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden and Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
- Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine Unit, Centre of Excellence in Malaria Research, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Marcus C S Lee
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK.
- Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery, Wellcome Centre for Anti-Infectives Research, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
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Rathod GK, Jain M, Sharma KK, Das S, Basak A, Jain R. New structural classes of antimalarials. Eur J Med Chem 2022; 242:114653. [PMID: 35985254 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2022.114653] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2022] [Revised: 07/22/2022] [Accepted: 07/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Malaria remains a major vector borne disease claiming millions of lives worldwide due to infections caused by Plasmodium sp. Discovery and development of antimalarial drugs have previously been dominated majorly by single drug therapy. The malaria parasite has developed resistance against first line and second line antimalarial drugs used in the single drug therapy. This has drawn attention to find ways to alleviate the disease burden supplanted by combination therapy with multiple drugs to overcome drug resistance. Emergence of resistant strains even against the combination therapy has now mandated the revision of the current antimalarial pharmacotherapy. Research efforts of the past decade led to the discovery and identification of several new structural classes of antimalarial agents with improved biological attributes over the older ones. The following is a comprehensive review, addressed to the new structural classes of heterocyclic and natural compounds that have been identified during the last decade as antimalarial agents. Some of the classes included herein contain one or more pharmacophores amalgamated into a single bioactive scaffold as antimalarial agents, which act upon the conventional and novel targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gajanan K Rathod
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Sector 67, S.A.S. Nagar, Punjab, 160 062, India
| | - Meenakshi Jain
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Sector 67, S.A.S. Nagar, Punjab, 160 062, India
| | - Krishna K Sharma
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Sector 67, S.A.S. Nagar, Punjab, 160 062, India
| | - Samarpita Das
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Sector 67, S.A.S. Nagar, Punjab, 160 062, India
| | - Ahana Basak
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Sector 67, S.A.S. Nagar, Punjab, 160 062, India
| | - Rahul Jain
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Sector 67, S.A.S. Nagar, Punjab, 160 062, India.
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