Cell-based medicinal chemistry optimization of high throughput screening hits for orally active antimalarials. Part 2: hits from SoftFocus kinase and other libraries.

In the second part of this Miniperspectives series, we highlight our medicinal chemistry efforts involving progression of hits from whole cell high-throughput screening (HTS) of a SoftFocus kinase library against the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum . Successful SAR exploration in Hit-to-Lead and Lead Optimization efforts leading to the selection of a preclinical development candidate are demonstrated. Related efforts by researchers from Broad/Genzyme, Anacor, and GSK are briefly covered.