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Optimization of 2,3-Dihydroquinazolinone-3-carboxamides as Antimalarials Targeting PfATP4.

Trent D AshtonMadeline G DansPaola FavuzzaAnna NgoAdele M LehaneXinxin ZhangDeyun QiuBikash Chandra MaityNirupam DeKyra A SchindlerTomas YeoHeekuk ParkAnne-Catrin UhlemannAlisje ChurchyardJake BaumDavid A FidockKate E JarmanKym N LowesDelphine BaudStephen BrandPaul F JacksonAlan F CowmanRobin B Gasser
Published in: Journal of medicinal chemistry (2023)
There is an urgent need to populate the antimalarial clinical portfolio with new candidates because of resistance against frontline antimalarials. To discover new antimalarial chemotypes, we performed a high-throughput screen of the Janssen Jumpstarter library against the Plasmodium falciparum asexual blood-stage parasite and identified the 2,3-dihydroquinazolinone-3-carboxamide scaffold. We defined the SAR and found that 8-substitution on the tricyclic ring system and 3-substitution of the exocyclic arene produced analogues with potent activity against asexual parasites equivalent to clinically used antimalarials. Resistance selection and profiling against drug-resistant parasite strains revealed that this antimalarial chemotype targets PfATP4. Dihydroquinazolinone analogues were shown to disrupt parasite Na + homeostasis and affect parasite pH, exhibited a fast-to-moderate rate of asexual kill, and blocked gametogenesis, consistent with the phenotype of clinically used PfATP4 inhibitors. Finally, we observed that optimized frontrunner analogue WJM-921 demonstrates oral efficacy in a mouse model of malaria.
Keyphrases
  • plasmodium falciparum
  • drug resistant
  • high throughput
  • mouse model
  • single cell
  • multidrug resistant
  • acinetobacter baumannii
  • molecular docking
  • escherichia coli
  • high intensity
  • tissue engineering
  • trypanosoma cruzi