Repurposing of approved drugs from the human pharmacopoeia to target Wolbachia endosymbionts of onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis

Johnston, Kelly, Ford, Louise, Umareddy, Indira, Townson, Simon, Specht, Sabine, Pfarr, Kenneth, Hoerauf, Achim, Altmeyer, Ralf and Taylor, Mark ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3396-9275 (2014) 'Repurposing of approved drugs from the human pharmacopoeia to target Wolbachia endosymbionts of onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis'. International Journal for Parasitology: Drugs and Drug Resistance, Vol 4, Issue 3, pp. 278-286.

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Abstract

Lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis are debilitating diseases caused by parasitic filarial nematodes infecting around 150 million people throughout the tropics with more than 1.5 billion at risk. As with other neglected tropical diseases, classical drug-discovery and development is lacking and a 50 year programme of macrofilaricidal discovery failed to deliver a drug which can be used as a public health tool. Recently, antibiotic targeting of filarial Wolbachia, an essential bacterial symbiont, has provided a novel drug treatment for filariasis with macrofilaricidal activity, although the current gold-standard, doxycycline, is unsuitable for use in mass drug administration (MDA). The anti-Wolbachia (A·WOL) Consortium aims to identify novel anti-Wolbachia drugs, compounds or combinations that are suitable for use in MDA. Development of a Wolbachia cell-based assay has enabled the screening of the approved human drug-pharmacopoeia (∼2600 drugs) for a potential repurposing. This screening strategy has revealed that approved drugs from various classes show significant bacterial load reduction equal to or superior to the gold-standard doxycycline, with 69 orally available hits from different drug categories being identified. Based on our defined hit criteria, 15 compounds were then selectively screened in a Litomosoides sigmodontis mouse model, 4 of which were active. These came from the tetracycline, fluoroquinolone and rifamycin classes. This strategy of repurposing approved drugs is a promising development in the goal of finding a novel treatment against filariasis and could also be a strategy applicable for other neglected tropical diseases.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	QV Pharmacology > Anti-Inflammatory Agents. Anti-Infective Agents. Antineoplastic Agents > QV 253 Anthelmintics QV Pharmacology > QV 34 Experimental pharmacology (General) QV Pharmacology > Anti-Bacterial Agents. Tissue Extracts > QV 350 Anti-bacterial agents (General or not elsewhere classified) QV Pharmacology > QV 38 Drug action. QV Pharmacology > Drug Standardization. Pharmacognosy. Medicinal Plants > QV 744 Pharmaceutical chemistry QW Microbiology and Immunology > Bacteria > QW 150 Proteobacteria. Rickettsiaceae, Wolbachia QX Parasitology > Helminths. Annelida > QX 203 Nematoda QX Parasitology > Helminths. Annelida > QX 301 Filarioidea WC Communicable Diseases > Tropical and Parasitic Diseases > WC 880 Filariasis and related conditions (General) WC Communicable Diseases > Tropical and Parasitic Diseases > WC 885 Onchocerciasis
Faculty: Department:	Biological Sciences > Department of Tropical Disease Biology
Digital Object Identifer (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpddr.2014.09.001
Depositing User:	Lynn Roberts-Maloney
Date Deposited:	17 Mar 2015 11:50
Last Modified:	16 Sep 2019 09:01
URI:	https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/5020

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