Harnessing Evolutionary Fitness in Plasmodium falciparum for Drug Discovery and Suppressing Resistance
Contributors: Wirth, Dyann F.; Wolfe, Michael; Lindquist, Susan; Kuritzkes, Daniel; Guy, Kiplin
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Description: Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease caused by infection with Plasmodium parasites. Complex socioeconomic and political factors limit access to vector control and antimalarial drugs, and an estimated 600,000 people die from malaria every year. Rising drug resistance threatens to make malaria untreatable. As for all new traits, resistance is limited by fitness, and a small number of pathways are heavily favored by evolution. These pathways are targets for drug discovery. Pairing compounds active against the wild-type and the small emerging resistant population, a strategy we termed "targeting resistance," could block the rise of competitively viable resistance.
Notes: Keywords: DHODH, Dihydroorotate dehydrogenase, Drug resistance, Malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, Pyrimidine.

Thesis Ph.D. Harvard University 2013