Authors
Z Chahine, Steven Abel, Thomas Hollin, Jonathan H Chung, Griffin Lee Barnes, Mary Elisabeth Daub, Isaline Renard, Jae Yeon Choi, V Pratap, A Pal, M Alba-Argomaniz, CAS Banks, Jay Kirkwood, Anita Saraf, I Camino, P Castaneda, MC Cuevas, Jaime De Mercado-Arnanz, Elena Fernandez-Alvaro, Adolfo Garcia-Perez, N Ibarz, Sara Viera-Morilla, Jacques Prudhomme, Chester J Joyner, AK Bei, Laurence Florens, C Ben Mamoun, CD Vanderwal, Karine G Le Roch
Publication date
2023/11/22
Journal
bioRxiv
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Preprints
Description
Here we report the discovery of MED6-189, a new analogue of the kalihinol family of isocyanoterpene (ICT) natural products. MED6-189 is effective against drug-sensitive and-resistant P. falciparum strains blocking both intraerythrocytic asexual replication and sexual differentiation. This compound was also effective against P. knowlesi and P. cynomolgi. In vivo efficacy studies using a humanized mouse model of malaria confirms strong efficacy of the compound in animals with no apparent hemolytic activity or apparent toxicity. Complementary chemical biology, molecular biology, genomics and cell biological analyses revealed that MED6-189 primarily targets the parasite apicoplast and acts by inhibiting lipid biogenesis and cellular trafficking. Genetic analyses in P. falciparum revealed that a mutation in PfSec13, which encodes a component of the parasite secretory machinery, reduced susceptibility to the drug …