title: Structure-based drug discovery for tropical diseases.
abstract: Parasitic diseases are amongst the foremost threats to human health and welfare around the world. In tropical and subtropical regions of the world, the consequences of parasitic infections are devastating both in terms of human morbidity and mortality. The current available drugs are limited, ineffective, and require long treatment regimens. To overcome these limitations, the identification of new macromolecular targets and small-molecule modulators is of utmost importance. The advances in genomics and proteomics have prompted drug discovery to move toward more rational strategies. The increasing understanding of the fundamental principles of protein-ligand interactions combined with the availability of compound libraries has facilitated the identification of promising hits and the generation of high quality lead compounds for tropical diseases. This review presents the current progresses and applications of structure-based drug design (SBDD) for the discovery of innovative chemotherapy agents for a variety of parasitic diseases, highlighting the challenges, limitations, and future perspectives in medicinal chemistry.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Química Medicinal e Computacional, Centro de Biotecnologia Molecular Estrutural, Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, 13560-70, São Carlos -SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Rafael V C
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Guido
authors.forename: Glaucius
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Oliva
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000977:Antiparasitic Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods*; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use; D010271:Parasites / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism; D010272:Parasitic Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy; D021281:Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D000977:Antiparasitic Agents; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors