Jain, S.; Sahu, U.; Kumar, A.; Khare, P. Metabolic Pathways of Leishmania Parasite: Source of Pertinent Drug Targets and Potent Drug Candidates. Pharmaceutics2022, 14, 1590.
Jain, S.; Sahu, U.; Kumar, A.; Khare, P. Metabolic Pathways of Leishmania Parasite: Source of Pertinent Drug Targets and Potent Drug Candidates. Pharmaceutics 2022, 14, 1590.
Cite as:
Jain, S.; Sahu, U.; Kumar, A.; Khare, P. Metabolic Pathways of Leishmania Parasite: Source of Pertinent Drug Targets and Potent Drug Candidates. Pharmaceutics2022, 14, 1590.
Jain, S.; Sahu, U.; Kumar, A.; Khare, P. Metabolic Pathways of Leishmania Parasite: Source of Pertinent Drug Targets and Potent Drug Candidates. Pharmaceutics 2022, 14, 1590.
Abstract
Leishmaniasis is a tropical disease caused by a protozoan parasite Leishmania that is transmitted via infected female sandflies. At present, leishmaniasis treatment mainly counts on chemotherapy. The currently available drugs against leishmaniasis are costly, toxic, with multiple side effects, and limitations in the administration route. The rapid emergence of drug resistance has severely reduced the potency of anti-leishmanial drugs. As a result, there is a pressing need for the development of novel anti-leishmanial drugs with high potency, low cost, acceptable toxicity, and good pharmacokinetics features. Due to the availability of preclinical data, drug repurposing is a valuable approach for speeding up the development of effective antileishmanial through pointing to new drug targets in less time having low costs and risk. Metabolic pathways of this parasite play a crucial role in the growth and proliferation of Leishmania species during the various stages of their life cycle. Based on available genomics/proteomics information, known pathways-based (sterol biosynthetic pathway, purine salvage pathway, glycolysis, GPI biosynthesis, hypusine, polyamine biosynthesis) Leishmania-specific proteins could be targeted with known drugs that were used in other diseases, resulting in finding new promising anti-leishmanial therapeutics. The present review discusses various metabolic pathways of the Leishmania parasite and some drug candidates targeting these pathways effectively that could be potent drugs against leishmaniasis in the future.
Keywords
Leishmania; Human Pathogen; Targeting Metabolic Pathways; Repurposed Drugs; New Antileishmanials.
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Parasitology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
