Malaria

Malaria, a disease caused by several species of obligate protozoan parasites, remains one of the most prevalent and persistent diseases to affect the global population; with hundreds of millions of people infected and over a million deaths each year.  This situation is compounded by the increasing resistance of the malaria parasites, particularly Plasmodium falciparum, to conventional drugs.  There is a great need to identify new therapeutically amenable targets and/or mechanisms with a view to developing small molecule inhibitors and/or vaccines to treat malaria.

Malaria parasites utilise a wealth of processes to complete the various stages of their lifecycle, for which a range of peptidases are essential for the completion of one or more of these stages.  In the human host, processes such as erythrocyte invasion, erythrocyte rupture upon escape as well as nutrient acquisition by degradation of host proteins, particularly haemoglobin, rely on the action of peptidases.  Falcipain-2 (FP-2) and falcipain-3 (FP-3) are cysteine peptidases produced by the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.  FP-2 and FP-3 have been found to be essential for parasite growth and completion of the blood stage of their life-cycle.  Selective inhibition of FP-2 and/or FP-3 may provide a novel treatment for malaria.