
UMCG Press Release: Targeting pathogen metabolism without collateral damage to the host
The development of drugs that can inactivate disease-causing cells (e.g. cancer cells or parasites) without causing collateral damage to healthy or to host cells is complicated by the fact that many proteins are very similar between organisms. Nevertheless, due to subtle, quantitative differences between the biochemical reaction networks of target cell and host, a drug can limit the flux of the same essential process in one organism more than in another. We identified precise criteria for this ‘network-based’ drug selectivity, which can serve as an alternative or additive to structural differences. We combined computational and experimental approaches to compare energy metabolism in the causative agent of sleeping sickness, Trypanosoma brucei, with that of human erythrocytes, and identified glucose transport and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase as the most selective antiparasitic targets. Computational predictions were validated experimentally in a novel parasite-erythrocytes co-culture system. Glucose-transport inhibitors killed trypanosomes without killing erythrocytes, neurons or liver cells.
UMCG : Press release
Last modified: | 13 February 2017 12.46 p.m. |
More news
-
26 April 2023
Royal Decorations for UG staff members
Two professors nominated by the University of Groningen have been awarded Royal Decorations on Tuesday 26 April. Professor K.U. Loos is appointed Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. She received this honour from Mayor K. Schuiling at...
-
26 April 2023
Cisca Wijmenga in Raad van Toezicht Hanzehogeschool
Cisca Wijmenga treedt per 1 september 2023 toe tot de Raad van Toezicht van de Hanzehogeschool.
-
25 April 2023
Response to the letter to the House of Representatives regarding internationalization
The Board of the University of Groningen has taken note of the Letter to the House of Representatives regarding internationalization in higher education, sent to the House on Friday 21 April by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science Robbert...