A Fasciola hepatica-derived fatty acid binding protein induces protection against schistosomiasis caused by Schistosoma bovis using the adjuvant adaptation (ADAD) vaccination system.

Several efforts have been made to identify anti-schistosomiasis vaccine candidates and new vaccination systems. The fatty acid binding protein (FAPB) has been shown to induce a high level of protection in trematode infection. The adjuvant adaptation (ADAD) vaccination system was used in this study, including recombinant FABP, a natural immunomodulator and saponins.

Antiprotozoan lead discovery by aligning dry and wet screening: prediction, synthesis, and biological assay of novel quinoxalinones.

Protozoan parasites have been one of the most significant public health problems for centuries and several human infections caused by them have massive global impact. Most of the current drugs used to treat these illnesses have been used for decades and have many limitations such as the emergence of drug resistance, severe side-effects, low-to-medium drug efficacy, administration routes, cost, etc. These drugs have been largely neglected as models for drug development because they are majorly used in countries with limited resources and as a consequence with scarce marketing possibilities.

Adaptive immune stimulation is required to obtain high protection with fatty acid binding protein vaccine candidate against Fasciola hepatica in Balb/C mice.

Fascioliasis is a parasitic disease that mainly affects cattle and sheep, causing significant economic losses with a great impact in developing countries. Human fascioliasis is becoming more important with the high endemicity in some countries of the world. Previous studies have shown the importance of Fasciola hepatica fatty acid binding proteins (FABP) as protective molecules against fascioliasis in various animal models including mice, rabbits, and sheep.

Synthesis and antimalarial activity of new heterocyclic hybrids based on chloroquine and thiazolidinone scaffolds.

A series of new 21 chloroquine heterocyclic hybrids containing either benzylamino fragment or N-(aminoalkyl)thiazolidin-4-one moiety were synthesized and screened for their antimalarial activity against chloroquine (CQ)-sensitive 3D7 and multidrug-resistance Dd2 strains of Plasmodium falciparum. Although no compounds more active than CQ against 3D7 was found; against Dd2 strain, six compounds, four of them with benzylamino fragment, showed an excellent activity, up to 3-fold more active than CQ. Non specific cytotoxicity on J774 macrophages was observed in some compounds whereas only two of them showed liver toxicity on HepG2 cells.

New 1-aryl-3-substituted propanol derivatives as antimalarial agents.

This paper describes the synthesis and in vitro antimalarial activity against a P. falciparum 3D7 strain of some new 1-aryl-3-substituted propanol derivatives. Twelve of the tested compounds showed an IC(50) lower than 1 microM.

Synthesis and evaluation of 1,1'-hydrocarbylenebis(indazol-3-ols) as potential antimalarial drugs.

Bis(indazol-3-ol) derivatives (5, 30-38) were prepared by alkylation of 3-alkoxyindazoles with alpha,omega-dibromides, followed by removal of the O-protecting groups. These compounds were subsequently evaluated as inhibitors of biocrystallization of ferriprotoporphyrin IX (heme) to hemozoin, a Plasmodium detoxification specific process. Most bis(5-nitroindazol-3-ols) were good inhibitors, however, a denitro analogue (38), the intermediate bis(3-alkoxyindazoles) (15-29) as well as bis(indazolin-3-ones) (39-42) were not active, showing the importance of the NO(2) and OH groups in the inhibition process.

Identification of Fasciola hepatica recombinant 15-kDa fatty acid-binding protein T-cell epitopes that protect against experimental fascioliasis in rabbits and mice.

Vaccination with fatty acid-binding proteins (FABPs) from Fasciola hepatica has been shown to confer significant levels of protection against challenge infection in mice, rabbits, and sheep. A recombinant 15-kDa FABP (rFh15) has been purified and also shown to be an immunoprotective molecule. From the rFh15 molecule sequence 2, 12- and 10-mer putative T-cell epitopes were identified, the first an Fh15Ta of amino acid sequence IKMVSSLKTKIT, and the second an Fh15Tb of amino acid sequence VKAVTTLLKA.

Immunomodulation of the response to excretory/secretory antigens of Fasciola hepatica by Anapsos in Balb/C mice and rat alveolar macrophages.

It is known that excretory/secretory antigens of Fasciola hepatica (ESFh) trigger a Th2-like immune response. Anapsos (A) is an aqueous hydrosoluble extract obtained from the rhizomes of the fern Polypodium leucotomos that has shown immunomodulator effects in some parasitic infections and immunological disorders. In this work we assess the effect of Anapsos and ESFh and Quillaja saponaria extract (Qs) on BALB/c mice and rat alveolar macrophages.

Synthesis and evaluation of some lipidic aminoalcohols and diamines as immunomodulators.

Lymphoproliferation inhibition and cytotoxicity of a number of lipidic aminoacids, aminoalcohols and diamines were evaluated as a preliminary screening to select potential immunomodulators. The four most potent/less toxic compounds were submitted to delayed hypersensibility (DTH) assays to define the best to be evaluated further Graft-vs-Host, NO production and other immunoevaluation (CD4(+), CD45, CD8, CD11b, I-Ek, and NK cells) assays, to establish their immunomodulation potential for being further considered as auxiliary agents for vaccination against some parasitic infections. Compounds 5d, 6d, 6f, 7a, and 9a, fairly inhibited the lymphoproliferation (71.

Trichinella: differing effects of antigens from encapsulated and non-encapsulated species on in vitro nitric oxide production.

Trichinellosis is a cosmopolitan zoonotic disease affecting a wide variety of animals, including man. Non-encapsulated and encapsulated species diverge with respect to their developmental strategies. Little is known at the molecular level about parasite-derived mediators responsible for host muscle cell transformation occurring during trichinellosis.

Predicting antitrichomonal activity: a computational screening using atom-based bilinear indices and experimental proofs.

Existing Trichomonas vaginalis therapies are out of reach for most trichomoniasis people in developing countries and, where available, they are limited by their toxicity (mainly in pregnant women) and their cost. New antitrichomonal agents are needed to combat emerging metronidazole-resistant trichomoniasis and reduce the side effects associated with currently available drugs. Toward this end, atom-based bilinear indices, a new TOMOCOMD-CARDD molecular descriptor, and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) were used to discover novel, potent, and non-toxic lead trichomonacidal chemicals.

Non-stochastic quadratic fingerprints and LDA-based QSAR models in hit and lead generation through virtual screening: theoretical and experimental assessment of a promising method for the discovery of new antimalarial compounds.

In order to explore the ability of non-stochastic quadratic indices to encode chemical information in antimalarials, four quantitative models for the discrimination of compounds having this property were generated and statistically compared. Accuracies of 90.2% and 83.

A computer-based approach to the rational discovery of new trichomonacidal drugs by atom-type linear indices.

Computational approaches are developed to design or rationally select, from structural databases, new lead trichomonacidal compounds. First, a data set of 111 compounds was split (design) into training and predicting series using hierarchical and partitional cluster analyses. Later, two discriminant functions were derived with the use of non-stochastic and stochastic atom-type linear indices.

A novel non-stochastic quadratic fingerprints-based approach for the 'in silico' discovery of new antitrypanosomal compounds.

A non-stochastic quadratic fingerprints-based approach is introduced to classify and design, in a rational way, new antitrypanosomal compounds. A data set of 153 organic chemicals, 62 with antitrypanosomal activity and 91 having other clinical uses, was processed by a k-means cluster analysis to design training and predicting data sets. Afterwards, a linear classification function was derived allowing the discrimination between active and inactive compounds.

A linear discrimination analysis based virtual screening of trichomonacidal lead-like compounds: outcomes of in silico studies supported by experimental results.

A computational (virtual) screening test to identify potential trichomonacidals has been developed. Molecular structures of trichomonacidal and non-trichomonacidal drugs were represented using stochastic and non-stochastic atom-based quadratic indices and a linear discrimination analysis (LDA) was trained to classify molecules regarding their antiprotozoan activity. Validation tests revealed that our LDA-QSAR models recognize at least 88.