ABSTRACT:
This model is from the article:
Antimalarial drug targets in Plasmodium falciparum predicted by st
age-specific metabolic network analysis.
Huthmacher C, Hoppe A, Bulik S, Holzhütter HG. BMC Syst Biol.
2010 Aug 31;4:120. 20807400
,
Abstract:
BACKGROUND:
Despite enormous efforts to combat malaria the disease still afflicts up to half
a billion people each year of which more than one million die. Currently no appro
ved vaccine is available and resistances to antimalarials are widely spread. Henc
e, new antimalarial drugs are urgently needed.
RESULTS:
Here, we present a computational analysis of the metabolism of Plasmodium falcipa
rum, the deadliest malaria pathogen. We assembled a compartmentalized metabolic m
odel and predicted life cycle stage specific metabolism with the help of a flux b
alance approach that integrates gene expression data. Predicted metabolite exchan
ges between parasite and host were found to be in good accordance with experiment
al findings when the parasite's metabolic network was embedded into that of its h
ost (erythrocyte). Knock-out simulations identified 307 indispensable metabolic r
eactions within the parasite. 35 out of 57 experimentally demonstrated essential
enzymes were recovered and another 16 enzymes, if additionally the assumption was
made that nutrient uptake from the host cell is limited and all reactions cataly
zed by the inhibited enzyme are blocked. This predicted set of putative drug targ
ets, shown to be enriched with true targets by a factor of at least 2.75, was fur
ther analyzed with respect to homology to human enzymes, functional similarity to
therapeutic targets in other organisms and their predicted potency for prophylax
is and disease treatment.
CONCLUSIONS:
The results suggest that the set of essential enzymes predicted by our flux balan
ce approach represents a promising starting point for further drug development.
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