Duffy antigen inhibitors: useful therapeutics for malaria?
Plasmodium vivax accounts for 65% of all cases of malaria in Asia and South America. Although not usually deadly, this form of malaria continues to inflict misery on the millions of sufferers who have been infected. The paucity of treatments for malaria, coupled with the emerging resistance of the parasite to anti-malarial drugs such as chloroquine, demonstrates an urgent need to develop new and alternative approaches to combat this disease. In this perspective, we propose that the development of small molecule inhibitors of the Duffy antigen, the portal of infection of P. vivax, would be a novel and potentially effective approach for treating this form of malaria.
Handel
Tracy M
TM
Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
Horuk
Richard
R
D000818:Animals; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000276:immunology; D018925:Chemokines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D016780:Malaria, Vivax / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000469:parasitology; D010966:Plasmodium vivax / Q000276:immunology*; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000276:immunology; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000276:immunology
D000953:Antigens, Protozoan; D018925:Chemokines; C066001:Duffy antigen binding protein, Plasmodium; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface