Is chemical genetics the new frontier for malaria biology?
Malaria is a global disease, causing at least 500 million clinical cases and more than one million deaths each year. Moreover, drug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum, the organism that causes most malaria-associated deaths, has become a major problem. Therefore, discovery and investigation of novel targets for anti-malarial drug design is essential to combat this disease. The malarial genome has been sequenced, revealing approximately 5500 genes. The current post-genomic challenge is functionally to evaluate the essential genes and validate them for therapeutic design. Unfortunately, standard genetics techniques are limited in scope because of low transfection efficiency and a lack of knockdown techniques, thereby rendering the analysis of essential genes difficult.
Greenbaum
Doron C
DC
Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, PA 19104, USA. greenbaum@pharma.med.upenn.edu
D000818:Animals; D000962:Antimalarials / Q000494:pharmacology; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D015195:Drug Design; D004351:Drug Resistance; D005821:Genetic Techniques; D006801:Humans; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics
D000962:Antimalarials