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Plasmodium falciparum malaria is a major global health problem, causing approximately 780,000 deaths each year. In response to the spreading of P. falciparum drug resistance, WHO recommended in 2001 to use artemisinin derivatives in combination with a partner drug (called ACT) as first-line treatment for uncomplicated falciparum malaria, and most malaria-endemic countries have since changed their treatment policies accordingly. Currently, ACT are often the last treatments that can effectively and rapidly cure P. falciparum infections permitting to significantly decrease the mortality and the morbidity due to malaria. However, alarming signs of emerging resistance to artemisinin derivatives along the Thai-Cambodian border are of major concern. Through long-term in vivo pressures, we have been able to select a murine malaria model resistant to artemisinins. We demonstrated that the resistance of Plasmodium to artemisinin-based compounds depends on alterations of heme metabolism and on a loss of hemozoin formation linked to the down-expression of the recently identified Heme Detoxification Protein (HDP). These artemisinins resistant strains could be able to detoxify the free heme by an alternative catabolism pathway involving glutathione (GSH)-mediation. Finally, we confirmed that artemisinins act also like quinolines against Plasmodium via hemozoin production inhibition. The work proposed here described the mechanism of action of this class of molecules and the resistance to artemisinins of this model. These results should help both to reinforce the artemisinins activity and avoid emergence and spread of endoperoxides resistance by focusing in adequate drug partners design. Such considerations appear crucial in the current context of early artemisinin resistance in Asia.

Current anti-malarial drugs have been selected on the basis of their activity against the symptom-causing asexual blood stage of the parasite. Which of these drugs also target gametocytes, in the sexual stage responsible for disease transmission, remains unknown. Blocking transmission is one of the main strategies in the eradication agenda and requires the identification of new molecules that are active against gametocytes. However, to date, the main limitation for measuring the effect of molecules against mature gametocytes on a large scale is the lack of a standardized and reliable method. Here we provide an efficient method to produce and purify mature gametocytes in vitro. Based on this new procedure, we developed a robust, affordable, and sensitive ATP bioluminescence-based assay. We then assessed the activity of 17 gold-standard anti-malarial drugs on Plasmodium late stage gametocytes. Difficulties in producing large amounts of gametocytes have limited progress in the development of malaria transmission blocking assays. We improved the method established by Ifediba and Vanderberg to obtain viable, mature gametocytes en masse, whatever the strain used. We designed an assay to determine the activity of antimalarial drugs based on the intracellular ATP content of purified stage IV-V gametocytes after 48 h of drug exposure in 96/384-well microplates. Measurements of drug activity on asexual stages and cytotoxicity on HepG2 cells were also obtained to estimate the specificity of the active drugs. The work described here represents another significant step towards determination of the activity of new molecules on mature gametocytes of any strain with an automated assay suitable for medium/high-throughput screening. Considering that the biology of the forms involved in the sexual and asexual stages is very different, a screen of our 2 million-compound library may allow us to discover novel anti-malarial drugs to target gametocyte-specific metabolic pathways.

The Tuberculosis Drug Accelerator, an experiment designed to facilitate collaboration in tuberculosis drug discovery by breaking down barriers among competing labs and institutions, has reached a 10-year landmark. We review the consortium’s achievements, advantages and limitations and advocate for the application of similar models to other diseases.

The discovery of new antimalarials with transmission blocking activity remains a key issue in efforts to control malaria and eventually eradicate the disease. Recently, high-throughput screening (HTS) assays have been successfully applied to Plasmodium falciparum asexual stages to screen millions of compounds, with the identification of thousands of new active molecules, some of which are already in clinical phases. The same approach has now been applied to identify compounds that are active against P. falciparum gametocytes, the parasite stage responsible for transmission. This study reports screening results for the Tres Cantos Antimalarial Set (TCAMS), of approximately 13,533 molecules, against P. falciparum stage V gametocytes. Secondary confirmation and cytotoxicity assays led to the identification of 98 selective molecules with dual activity against gametocytes and asexual stages. Hit compounds were chemically clustered and analyzed for appropriate physicochemical properties. The TCAMS chemical space around the prioritized hits was also studied. A selection of hit compounds was assessed ex vivo in the standard membrane feeding assay and demonstrated complete block in transmission. As a result of this effort, new chemical structures not connected to previously described antimalarials have been identified. This new set of compounds may serve as starting points for future drug discovery programs as well as tool compounds for identifying new modes of action involved in malaria transmission.

Tuberculosis remains a serious threat to human health world-wide, and improved efficiency of medical treatment requires a better understanding of the pathogenesis and the discovery of new drugs. In the present study, we performed a whole-cell based screen in order to complete the characterization of 168 compounds from the GlaxoSmithKline TB-set. We have established and utilized novel previously unexplored host-model systems to characterize the GSK compounds, i.e. the amoeboid organisms D. discoideum and A. castellanii , as well as a microglial phagocytic cell line, BV2. We infected these host cells with Mycobacterium marinum to monitor and characterize the anti-infective activity of the compounds with quantitative fluorescence measurements and high-content microscopy. In summary, 88.1% of the compounds were confirmed as antibiotics against M . marinum , 11.3% and 4.8% displayed strong anti-infective activity in, respectively, the mammalian and protozoan infection models. Additionally, in the two systems, 13–14% of the compounds displayed pro-infective activity. Our studies underline the relevance of using evolutionarily distant pathogen and host models in order to reveal conserved mechanisms of virulence and defence, respectively, which are potential “universal” targets for intervention. Subsequent mechanism of action studies based on generation of over-expresser M. bovis BCG strains, generation of spontaneous resistant mutants and whole genome sequencing revealed four new molecular targets, including FbpA, MurC, MmpL3 and GlpK.

The lack of success in target-based screening approaches to the discovery of antibacterial agents has led to reemergence of phenotypic screening as a successful approach of identifying bioactive, antibacterial compounds. A challenge though with this route is then to identify the molecular target(s) and mechanism of action of the hits. This target identification, or deorphanization step, is often essential in further optimization and validation studies. Direct experimental identification of the molecular target of a screening hit is often complex, precisely because the properties and specificity of the hit are not yet optimized against that target, and so many false positives are often obtained. An alternative is to use computational, predictive, approaches to hypothesize a mechanism of action, which can then be validated in a more directed and efficient manner. Specifically here we present experimental validation of an in silico prediction from a large-scale screen performed against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of tuberculosis. The two potent anti-tubercular compounds studied in this case, belonging to the tetrahydro-1,3,5-triazin-2-amine (THT) family, were predicted and confirmed to be an inhibitor of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), a known essential Mtb gene, and already clinically validated as a drug target. Given the large number of similar screening data sets shared amongst the community, this in vitro validation of these target predictions gives weight to computational approaches to establish the mechanism of action (MoA) of novel screening hit.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis , the etiological agent of the infectious disease tuberculosis, kills approximately 1.5 million people annually, while the spread of multidrug-resistant strains is of great global concern. Thus, continuous efforts to identify new antitubercular drugs as well as novel targets are crucial. Recently, two prodrugs activated by the monooxygenase EthA, 7947882 and 7904688, which target the CTP synthetase PyrG, were identified and characterized. In this work, microbiological, biochemical, and in silico methodologies were used to demonstrate that both prodrugs possess a second target, the pantothenate kinase PanK. This enzyme is involved in coenzyme A biosynthesis, an essential pathway for M. tuberculosis growth. Moreover, compound 11426026, the active metabolite of 7947882, was demonstrated to directly inhibit PanK, as well. In an independent screen of a compound library against PyrG, two additional inhibitors were also found to be active against PanK. In conclusion, these direct PyrG and PanK inhibitors can be considered as leads for multitarget antitubercular drugs and these two enzymes could be employed as a “double-tool” in order to find additional hit compounds.

High-throughput phenotypic screens have re-emerged as screening tools in antibiotic discovery. The advent of such technologies has rapidly accelerated the identification of ‘hit’ compounds. A pre-requisite to medicinal chemistry optimisation programmes required to improve the drug-like properties of a ‘hit’ molecule is identification of its mode of action. Herein, we have combined phenotypic screening with a biased target-specific screen. The inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) protein GuaB2 has been identified as a drugable target in Mycobacterium tuberculosis , however previously identified compounds lack the desired characteristics necessary for further development into lead-like molecules. This study has identified 7 new chemical series from a high-throughput resistance-based phenotypic screen using Mycobacterium bovis BCG over-expressing GuaB2. Hit compounds were identified in a single shot high-throughput screen, validated by dose response and subjected to further biochemical analysis. The compounds were also assessed using molecular docking experiments, providing a platform for their further optimisation using medicinal chemistry. This work demonstrates the versatility and potential of GuaB2 as an anti-tubercular drug target.

As a follow up to the antimycobacterial screening exercise and the release of GSK´s first Tres Cantos Antimycobacterial Set (TCAMS-TB), this paper presents the results of a second antitubercular screening effort of two hundred and fifty thousand compounds recently added to the GSK collection. The compounds were further prioritized based on not only antitubercular potency but also on physicochemical characteristics. The 50 most attractive compounds were then progressed for evaluation in three different predictive computational biology algorithms based on structural similarity or GSK historical biological assay data in order to determine their possible mechanisms of action. This effort has resulted in the identification of novel compounds and their hypothesized targets that will hopefully fuel future TB drug discovery and target validation programs alike.

Background Whole‐cell phenotypic screening is the driving force behind modern anti‐tubercular drug discovery efforts. Focus has shifted from screening for bactericidal scaffolds to screens incorporating target deconvolution. Target‐based screening aims to direct drug discovery toward known effective targets and avoid investing resources into unproductive lines of enquiry. The protein synthesis pipeline, including RNA polymerase and the ribosome, is a clinically proven target in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Screening for new hits of this effective target pathway is an invaluable tool in the drug discovery arsenal. Methods Using M. tuberculosis H37Rv augmented with anhydrotetracycline‐inducible expression of mCherry, a phenotypic screen was developed for the identification of protein synthesis inhibitors in a medium throughput screening format. Results The assay was validated using known inhibitors of protein synthesis to show a dose‐dependent reduction in mCherry fluorescence. This was expanded to a proprietary screen of hypothetical protein synthesis hits and modified to include quantitative viability measurement of cells using resazurin. Conclusion Following the success of the proprietary screen, a larger scale screen of the GlaxoSmithKline anti‐tubercular library containing 2799 compounds was conducted. Combined single shot and dose‐response screening yielded 18 hits, 0.64% of all screened compounds.