Investigation of the immunophilin interactome of malarial parasites

Abstract

Malaria presents a significant global challenge in both human and economic terms. Approximately 40% of the population of the planet are at risk of contracting malaria, leading to an estimated 225 million cases and approximately 781,000 deaths anually. Emerging resistance to front-line antimalarial drugs means that the search for new drugs and drug targets continues to be high priority in the fight against the disease, The imunophilin-binding drugs FK506, cyclosporin A, and rapamycin as well as some non-immunosuppressive derivatives of these drugs have all been shown to have strong inhibitory effects on malarial culture in culture and, in the case of cyclosporin A, in animal models.