Investigation of antimalarial activity and molecular targets of natural compounds identified by chemoinformatics against Plasmodium vivax

Malaria is still a public health problem, with around 219 million cases reported worldwide in 2017. Brazil, together with Venezuela, still accounts for most cases of the disease in the Americas. Among the species that infect humans, P. Vivax is responsible for almost all cases in Brazil and presents more and more severe cases, breaking the paradigm of Vivax Malaria as a benign infection. Strains of the parasite resistant to chloroquine already circulate in endemic areas and, therefore, there is a need to search for new antimalarials, especially against Vivax Malaria. Regions such as the Amazon – endemic for Malaria – are rich in biodiversity and therefore harbor potential bioactive compounds. Natural products are part of the development process for one third of the drugs introduced on the market in the last thirty years. Therefore, as an abundant and diverse source of chemical structures with biological activity, natural products share pharmacophoric characteristics and are a rich source of scaffolds for medicinal chemistry. In the face of drug discovery, computer-aided drug design optimizes the identification of bioactive drug candidate molecules, including potential antimalarials, decreasing the burden of phenotypic screening assays and increasing the chances of success. Thus, combining chemoinformatics and experimental strategies, this project aims to carry out ligand-based in silico screenings for identification and subsequent experimental validation of natural and synthetic compounds with potential antimalarial activity, also seeking to identify the molecular targets of the most promising compounds. Therefore, this research seeks to cooperate with the availability of knowledge and new treatments for the control of Vivax Malaria.

Project details

Basic Science

Dec 2019 — Nov 2023

Brazil