Last Updated: 06/11/2023
Target-oriented approach and in silico and in vitro screening to identify new antimalarial candidates focusing on Plasmodium vivax
Objectives
*Original title in Portuguese: Abordagem orientada por alvos e triagens in silico e in vitro para identificar novos candidatos antimaláricos com foco em Plasmodium vivax
This project through in silico analysis aims to identify molecular targets of P. vivax and establish a technological platform for the discovery of new drugs taking into account all stages of the parasite, including hypnozoites.
For the present doctoral project, we intend to identify and characterize potential molecular targets of P. vivax and new drug candidates to be used in chemotherapy strategies. For this, a database of commercially available compounds will be screened using molecular docking tools and previously generated and validated machine learning and deep learning models. The selected compounds will be submitted to in vitro experimental evaluation in the asexual and sexual stages of P. falciparum, sexual stage of P. berghei, and cytotoxicity assays in mammalian cells. The most promising compounds will be submitted to a yeast expression platform to evaluate the selectivity against the plasmodial versus human ortholog. Subsequently, only those compounds that show good inhibitory activity against these species will then be tested against P. vivax, the main focus of the present study. Therefore, it is expected to identify new effective compounds that may constitute alternative therapies against the two main species that cause malaria in the world, mainly P. vivax.
Mar 2020
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