Researchers from the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Delhi in the month of Dec 2016 discovered a novel route to ascertain new drug targets and potential drugs.
New drug targets route and potential drugs are particularly for the parasites such as Loa loa nematode/roundworm and Schistosoma mansoni platyhelminths/flatworm that cause several diseases.
Parasites are a major cause of diseases in African nations- they have limited treatment options and are also drug resistant.
Researchers took aaRSs or aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases of the two parasites instead of blindly screening molecules which is expensive and takes a long time.
They picked up one of the enzymes that contribute to protein synthesis and authenticated it as a druggable target.
They then studied the crystal structure of the enzyme with cladosporin, a drug that targets these parasites.
It showed the acquaintance of the drug within the active site of the enzyme.
What is aaRSs?- Stands for Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases
- Essential enzymes that decode the genetic information and enable protein translation.
Enzyme family of aaRSs has 20 members.
Each enzyme contributes to protein synthesis.
If one of 20 enzymes is missing, then protein synthesis cannot happen.
