Drug target discovery methods in targeting neurotropic parasitic amoebae
Document Type
Article
Department
Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Abstract
Neurotropic parasitic amoebal infections have imposed an enormous challenge to chemotherapy in patients who fall victims to the infections caused by them. Conventional antibiotics that are given to treat these infections have a low patient compliance because of the serious adverse effects that are associated with their use. Additionally, the growing incidence of the development of drug resistance by the neurotropic parasites like Naegleria fowleri, Balamuthia mandrillaris, and Acanthamoeba spp has made the drug therapy more challenging. Recent studies have reported some cellular targets in the neurotropic parasitic Acanthamoeba that are used as receptors by human neurotransmitters like acetylcholine. This Viewpoint attempts to highlight the novel methodologies that use drug assays and structural modeling to uncover cellular targets of diverse groups of drugs and the safety issues of the drugs proposed for their use in brain infections caused by the neurotropic parasitic amoebae.
Publication (Name of Journal)
ACS Chemical Neuroscience
DOI
10.1021/acschemneuro.7b00492
Recommended Citation
Baig, A. M.,
Waliani, N.,
Karim, S.
(2018). Drug target discovery methods in targeting neurotropic parasitic amoebae. ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 9(2), 162-164.
Available at:
https://ecommons.aku.edu/pakistan_fhs_mc_bbs/339