The main challenge in the control of malaria has been the emergence of drug-resistant
parasites. The presence of drug-resistant Plasmodium sp. has raised
the need for new antimalarial drugs. Molecular modelling techniques have been used as
tools to develop new drugs. In this study, we employed virtual screening of a pyrazol
derivative (Tx001) against four malaria targets: plasmepsin-IV, plasmepsin-II,
falcipain-II, and PfATP6. The receiver operating characteristic curves and area under
the curve (AUC) were established for each molecular target. The AUC values obtained
for plasmepsin-IV, plasmepsin-II, and falcipain-II were 0.64, 0.92, and 0.94,
respectively. All docking simulations were carried out using AutoDock Vina software.
The ligand Tx001 exhibited a better interaction with PfATP6 than with the reference
compound (-12.2 versus -6.8 Kcal/mol). The Tx001-PfATP6 complex was submitted to
molecular dynamics simulations in vacuum implemented on an NAMD program. The ligand
Tx001 docked at the same binding site as thapsigargin, which is a natural inhibitor
of PfATP6. Compound TX001 was evaluated in vitro with a P.
falciparum strain (W2) and a human cell line (WI-26VA4). Tx001 was
discovered to be active against P. falciparum (IC50 = 8.2
µM) and inactive against WI-26VA4 (IC50 > 200 µM). Further ligand
optimisation cycles generated new prospects for docking and biological assays.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.