Old Drugs Help Treat New Infections

A recent study looks at a class of drugs used to treat parasitic infection, including malaria, and how these medications may also be successful in treating cancer or even immune-related diseases.

Researchers found that with simple modifications to the drug furamidine, there can be a major impact on the ability to affect specific human proteins that are involved in the on-off switches via certain genes.

 "This was rather unexpected, given how relatively simple the molecules are that we modified and how difficult it has been to affect these proteins," Gregory Poon, pharmaceutical scientist at Washington State University said, according to a press release.

The proteins, also known as transcription factors, help to regulate the expression of genes that are highly coordinated via intricate matter that helps as targets for therapeutic drugs.

 "For this reason, they have been called undruggable," he said, via the release. "Recently, however, scientists have been making headway in targeting these transcription factors with drugs, and now our results suggest this class of drugs can be a useful addition to the arsenal."

Background information from the study ntoes that furamidine belongs to a family of drugs known as heterocyclic dications. The drug has a long history of use in serious parasitic diseases such as malaria, African sleeping sickness and PCP, a common infection in HIV/AIDS.

"There is tremendous knowledge and experience with using furamidine and related drugs in humans, so these drugs have an important advantage over other classes of drugs that are relatively behind in clinical experience," Poon said, via the release.

Researchers at Georgia State University worked to target a specific transcription known as PU. !.

The study concludes with the following regarding the transcription: "PU.1 is a major factor in development and function of the human immune system, and it plays important roles in diseases such as some leukemias, multiple sclerosis and diabetes. PU.1 is also a member of a large family of related transcription factors, known as ETS, that is involved in a broader range of cancers and other diseases."

More information regarding the study can be found via the Nucleic Acids Research journal.