Metabolic and Structural Biology Department, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, P.O. CIMAP, Kukrail Picnic Spot Road, Lucknow 226015, UP, India.
Chem Biol Drug Des. 2012 Aug;80(2):155-72. doi: 10.1111/j.1747-0285.2012.01389.x. Epub 2012 May 28.
Plasmodium falciparum, a causitive agent of malaria, is the third most prevalent factor for mortility in the world. Falciparum malaria is an example of evolutionary and balancing selection. Because of mutation and natural selection, the parasite has developed resistance to most of the existing drugs. Under such circumstances, there is a growing need to develop new molecular targets in P. falciparum. A four membrane bound organelles called apicoplast, very much similar to that of chloroplast of plants, have been found in parasite. Therefore, the proteins involved in metabolic pathways of apicoplasts are important drug targets. Among the pathways in apicoplast, fatty acid biosynthetic pathway is the most important metabolic pathway in P. falciparum. Several studies have explored the role of different proteins involved in this pathway and antimalarial compounds against this target. In this review, we have studied the role of different proteins in fatty acid metabolism and designing, synthesis and evaluation of compounds against the targets identified in fatty acid metabolic pathway.
疟原虫（Plasmodium falciparum）是疟疾的病原体，是世界上第三大致死因素。恶性疟原虫是进化和平衡选择的一个例子。由于突变和自然选择，寄生虫对大多数现有药物产生了耐药性。在这种情况下，人们越来越需要在疟原虫中开发新的分子靶标。在寄生虫中发现了一种称为类质体的四个膜结合细胞器，非常类似于植物的叶绿体。因此，类质体代谢途径中涉及的蛋白质是重要的药物靶标。在类质体途径中，脂肪酸生物合成途径是疟原虫中最重要的代谢途径。已有多项研究探讨了该途径中不同蛋白质的作用以及针对该靶点的抗疟化合物。在这篇综述中，我们研究了脂肪酸代谢中不同蛋白质的作用，并设计、合成和评估了针对脂肪酸代谢途径中鉴定出的靶标的化合物。
