Cover Picture: Synthesis and Evaluation of Indatraline‐Based Inhibitors for Trypanothione Reductase / Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Novel Inhibitors of Trypanosoma brucei Pteridine Reductase 1 / Modified 5′‐Trityl Nucleosides as Inhibitors of Plasmodium falciparum dUTPase (ChemMedChem 2/2011)

Abstract

Better and safer drugs are required for neglected tropical diseases, such as malaria and the trypanosomatid diseases, human African trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis. However, these are “diseases of poverty” and therefore not economically viable for pharmaceutical companies to invest in at the early stage of drug discovery. For this reason, research conducted in an academic and nonprofit setting is of particular importance in filling this critical gap. The cover picture shows inhibitors of a drug target in malaria (dUTPase, upper right) and two enzyme targets common to the trypanosomatid diseases (trypanothione reductase, lower left; pteridine reductase 1, lower right). The cover also shows a transmission electron micrograph (upper left) of a late trophozoite stage of a malaria parasite (cyan) infecting an erythrocyte (magenta), and a scanning electron micrograph of a bloodstream form of the African trypanosome (bottom centre). For more details, see the Full Papers by Nicholas J. Westwood, Alan H. Fairlamb et al. (p. 321 ff), and Ian H. Gilbert et al. (p. 302 ff and p. 309 ff).