Computational identification of uncharacterized cruzain binding sites.

Chagas disease, caused by the unicellular parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, claims 50,000 lives annually and is the leading cause of infectious myocarditis in the world. As current antichagastic therapies like nifurtimox and benznidazole are highly toxic, ineffective at parasite eradication, and subject t...

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Main Authors: Jacob D Durrant, Henrik Keränen, Benjamin A Wilson, J Andrew McCammon
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2010-05-01
Series:PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0000676&type=printable
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author Jacob D Durrant
Henrik Keränen
Benjamin A Wilson
J Andrew McCammon
author_facet Jacob D Durrant
Henrik Keränen
Benjamin A Wilson
J Andrew McCammon
author_sort Jacob D Durrant
collection DOAJ
description Chagas disease, caused by the unicellular parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, claims 50,000 lives annually and is the leading cause of infectious myocarditis in the world. As current antichagastic therapies like nifurtimox and benznidazole are highly toxic, ineffective at parasite eradication, and subject to increasing resistance, novel therapeutics are urgently needed. Cruzain, the major cysteine protease of Trypanosoma cruzi, is one attractive drug target. In the current work, molecular dynamics simulations and a sequence alignment of a non-redundant, unbiased set of peptidase C1 family members are used to identify uncharacterized cruzain binding sites. The two sites identified may serve as targets for future pharmacological intervention.
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institution DOAJ
issn 1935-2727
1935-2735
language English
publishDate 2010-05-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
spelling doaj-art-2986bb58d09f4e25a528af8f7c1cd23f2025-08-20T03:07:40ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases1935-27271935-27352010-05-0145e67610.1371/journal.pntd.0000676Computational identification of uncharacterized cruzain binding sites.Jacob D DurrantHenrik KeränenBenjamin A WilsonJ Andrew McCammonChagas disease, caused by the unicellular parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, claims 50,000 lives annually and is the leading cause of infectious myocarditis in the world. As current antichagastic therapies like nifurtimox and benznidazole are highly toxic, ineffective at parasite eradication, and subject to increasing resistance, novel therapeutics are urgently needed. Cruzain, the major cysteine protease of Trypanosoma cruzi, is one attractive drug target. In the current work, molecular dynamics simulations and a sequence alignment of a non-redundant, unbiased set of peptidase C1 family members are used to identify uncharacterized cruzain binding sites. The two sites identified may serve as targets for future pharmacological intervention.https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0000676&type=printable
spellingShingle Jacob D Durrant
Henrik Keränen
Benjamin A Wilson
J Andrew McCammon
Computational identification of uncharacterized cruzain binding sites.
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
title Computational identification of uncharacterized cruzain binding sites.
title_full Computational identification of uncharacterized cruzain binding sites.
title_fullStr Computational identification of uncharacterized cruzain binding sites.
title_full_unstemmed Computational identification of uncharacterized cruzain binding sites.
title_short Computational identification of uncharacterized cruzain binding sites.
title_sort computational identification of uncharacterized cruzain binding sites
url https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0000676&type=printable
work_keys_str_mv AT jacobddurrant computationalidentificationofuncharacterizedcruzainbindingsites
AT henrikkeranen computationalidentificationofuncharacterizedcruzainbindingsites
AT benjaminawilson computationalidentificationofuncharacterizedcruzainbindingsites
AT jandrewmccammon computationalidentificationofuncharacterizedcruzainbindingsites