In Silico Analysis of Potential Drug Targets for Protozoan Infections

Abstract

Background: Currently, protozoan infectious diseases affect billions of people every year. Their pharmacological treatments offer few alternatives and are restrictive due to undesirable side effects and parasite drug resistance. Objective: In this work, three ontology-based approaches were used to identify shared potential drug targets in five species of protozoa. Methods: In this study, proteomes of five species of protozoa: Entamoeba histolytica (E. histolytica), Giardia lamblia (G. lamblia), Trichomonas vaginalis (T. vaginalis), Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), and Leishmania mexicana (L. mexicana), were compared through orthology inference using three different tools to identify potential drug targets. Results: Comparing the proteomes of E. histolytica, G. lamblia, T. vaginalis, T. cruzi, and L. mexicana, twelve targets for developing new drugs with antiprotozoal activity were identified. Conclusion: New drug targets were identified by orthology-based analysis; therefore, they could be considered for the development of new broad-spectrum antiprotozoal drugs. Particularly, triosephosphate isomerase emerges as a common target in trypanosomatids and amitochondriate parasites.