Exploring a Tetrahydroquinoline Antimalarial Hit from the Medicines for Malaria Pathogen Box and Identification of its Mode of Resistance as PfeEF2

  • Benoît Laleu
  • , Kelly Rubiano
  • , Tomas Yeo
  • , Irene Hallyburton
  • , Mark Anderson
  • , Benigno Crespo-Fernandez
  • , Francisco Javier Gamo
  • , Yevgeniya Antonova-Koch
  • , Pamela Orjuela-Sanchez
  • , Sergio Wittlin
  • , Gouranga P. Jana
  • , Bikash C. Maity
  • , Elodie Chenu
  • , James Duffy
  • , Peter Sjö
  • , David Waterson
  • , Elizabeth Winzeler
  • , Eric Guantai
  • , David A. Fidock
  • , Thomas G. Hansson (Lead / Corresponding author)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)
135 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

New antimalarial treatments with novel mechanism of action are needed to tackle Plasmodium falciparum infections that are resistant to first-line therapeutics. Here we report the exploration of MMV692140 (2) from the Pathogen Box, a collection of 400 compounds that was made available by Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) in 2015. Compound 2 was profiled in in vitro models of malaria and was found to be active against multiple life-cycle stages of Plasmodium parasites. The mode of resistance, and putatively its mode of action, was identified as Plasmodium falciparum translation elongation factor 2 (PfeEF2), which is responsible for the GTP-dependent translocation of the ribosome along mRNA. The compound maintains activity against a series of drug-resistant parasite strains. The structural motif of the tetrahydroquinoline (2) was explored in a chemistry program with its structure-activity relationships examined, resulting in the identification of an analog with 30-fold improvement of antimalarial asexual blood stage potency.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere202200393
Number of pages7
JournalChemMedChem
Volume17
Issue number22
Early online date21 Sept 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Nov 2022

Keywords

  • biological activity
  • drug discovery
  • Malaria
  • malaria rate of killing
  • malaria resistance
  • PfeEF2

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Medicine
  • Pharmacology
  • Drug Discovery
  • Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics(all)
  • Organic Chemistry

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