Repositioned Drugs for Chagas Disease Unveiled via Structure-Based Drug Repositioning

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Melissa F Adasme - , Biotechnology Center (BIOTEC) (Author)
  • Sarah Naomi Bolz - , Biotechnology Center, Chair of Bioinformatics (Author)
  • Lauren Adelmann - , Biotechnology Center (BIOTEC) (Author)
  • Sebastian Salentin - , Biotechnology Center (Author)
  • V Joachim Haupt - , Biotechnology Center (BIOTEC) (Author)
  • Adriana Moreno-Rodríguez - , Universidad Autonoma Benito Juarez de Oaxaca (Author)
  • Benjamín Nogueda-Torres - , Instituto Politécnico Nacional (Author)
  • Verónica Castillo-Campos - , Instituto Politécnico Nacional (Author)
  • Lilián Yepez-Mulia - , Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (Author)
  • José A De Fuentes-Vicente - , University of Sciences and Arts of Chiapas (Author)
  • Gildardo Rivera - , Instituto Politécnico Nacional (Author)
  • Michael Schroeder - , Biotechnology Center, Chair of Bioinformatics (Author)

Abstract

Chagas disease, caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, affects millions of people in South America. The current treatments are limited, have severe side effects, and are only partially effective. Drug repositioning, defined as finding new indications for already approved drugs, has the potential to provide new therapeutic options for Chagas. In this work, we conducted a structure-based drug repositioning approach with over 130,000 3D protein structures to identify drugs that bind therapeutic Chagas targets and thus represent potential new Chagas treatments. The screening yielded over 500 molecules as hits, out of which 38 drugs were prioritized following a rigorous filtering process. About half of the latter were already known to have trypanocidal activity, while the others are novel to Chagas disease. Three of the new drug candidates-ciprofloxacin, naproxen, and folic acid-showed a growth inhibitory activity in the micromolar range when tested ex vivo on T. cruzi trypomastigotes, validating the prediction. We show that our drug repositioning approach is able to pinpoint relevant drug candidates at a fraction of the time and cost of a conventional screening. Furthermore, our results demonstrate the power and potential of structure-based drug repositioning in the context of neglected tropical diseases where the pharmaceutical industry has little financial interest in the development of new drugs.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number8809
JournalInternational journal of molecular sciences
Volume21
Issue number22
Publication statusPublished - 20 Nov 2020
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMedCentral PMC7699892
Scopus 85096318680
ORCID /0000-0003-2848-6949/work/141543359

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

Keywords

  • Animals, Cell Line, Chagas Disease/drug therapy, Ciprofloxacin/chemistry, Drug Repositioning, Folic Acid/chemistry, Mice, Naproxen/chemistry, Structure-Activity Relationship, Trypanocidal Agents/chemistry, Trypanosoma cruzi/drug effects