title: Inhibitors of Trypanosoma brucei trypanothione reductase: comparative molecular field analysis modeling and structural basis for selective inhibition.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Sleeping sickness is a major cause of death in Africa. Since no secure treatment is available, the development of novel therapeutic agents is urgent. In this context, the enzyme trypanothione reductase (TR) is a prominent molecular target that has been investigated in drug design for sleeping sickness.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study, comparative molecular field analysis models were generated for a series of Trypanosoma brucei TR inhibitors. Statistically significant results were obtained and the models were applied to predict the activity of external test sets, with good correlation between predicted and experimental results. We have also investigated the structural requirements for the selective inhibition of the parasite's enzyme over the human glutathione reductase.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The quantitative structure-activity relationship models provided valuable information regarding the essential molecular requirements for the inhibitory activity upon the target protein, providing important insights into the design of more potent and selective TR inhibitors.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Química Medicinal e Computacional, Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Trabalhador São-Carlense 400, 13560-970, São Carlos-SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Leonardo G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: Adriano D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Andricopulo
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D020134:Catalytic Domain; D004789:Enzyme Activation / Q000187:drug effects; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D005980:Glutathione Reductase / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays; D006801:Humans; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009247:NADH, NADPH Oxidoreductases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000378:metabolism; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000378:metabolism; D021281:Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014346:Trypanosoma brucei brucei / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology*
chemical_list: D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D009247:NADH, NADPH Oxidoreductases; C049608:trypanothione reductase; D005980:Glutathione Reductase