Brief Communication abstract


Nature Chemical Biology 2, 415 - 416 (2006)
Published online: 2 July 2006 | doi:10.1038/nchembio806

A clinical drug library screen identifies astemizole as an antimalarial agent

Curtis R Chong1,2,3, Xiaochun Chen1, Lirong Shi4, Jun O Liu1,2,5 & David J Sullivan, Jr2,4

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The high cost and protracted time line of new drug discovery are major roadblocks to creating therapies for neglected diseases. To accelerate drug discovery we created a library of 2,687 existing drugs and screened for inhibitors of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. The antihistamine astemizole and its principal human metabolite are promising new inhibitors of chloroquine-sensitive and multidrug-resistant parasites, and they show efficacy in two mouse models of malaria.

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  1. Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences. The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
  2. The Johns Hopkins Clinical Compound Screening Initiative, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
  3. Medical Scientist Training Program, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
  4. The Malaria Research Institute, W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
  5. Department of Neuroscience, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.

Correspondence to: David J Sullivan, Jr2,4 e-mail: dsulliva@jhsph.edu



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