Abstract
Schistosomiasis is a neglected parasitosis caused by Schistosoma spp. Praziquantel is used for the chemoprophylaxis and treatment of this disease. Although this monotherapy is effective, the risk of resistance and its low efficiency against immature worms compromises its effectiveness. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new schistosomicide drugs. However, the development of new drugs is a long and expensive process. The repositioning of approved drugs has been proposed as a quick, cheap, and effective alternative to solve this problem. This study employs chemogenomic analysis with use of bioinformatics tools to search, identify, and analyze data on approved drugs with the potential to inhibit Schistosoma mansoni energy metabolism enzymes. The TDR Targets Database, Gene DB, Protein, DrugBank, Therapeutic Targets Database (TTD), Promiscuous, and PubMed databases were used. Fifty-nine target proteins were identified, of which 18 had one or more approved drugs. The results identified 20 potential drugs for schistosomiasis treatment; all approved for use in humans.
Highlights
Schistosomiasis is a neglected parasitic illness caused by Schistosoma trematodes, mainly caused by three species of medical importance: S. mansoni, S. haematobium, and S. japonicum
In the TDR Targets Database, 59 genes were identified that encode S. mansoni energy metabolism enzymes
This study presents an in silico repositioning strategy to identify new drugs for treating intestinal schistosomiasis based on the principle of target similarity to identify drugs approved for clinical use in humans
Summary
Schistosomiasis is a neglected parasitic illness caused by Schistosoma trematodes, mainly caused by three species of medical importance: S. mansoni, S. haematobium, and S. japonicum. In 2016, transmission of this illness was recorded in 78 countries, with about 206 million people requiring preventive chemotherapy. Approximately 88 million people received treatment in 52 countries with a high or moderate prevalence of this parasitosis [1]. For schistosomiasis treatment and chemophylaxis, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the use of the drug praziquantel (PZQ) [2], because it is an anthelmintic that is effective in a single oral dose, mild adverse reactions (include abdominal pain, diarrhea, dizziness, sleepiness and headache) and has a relatively low cost [3,4]. The exact mechanism of action of the PZQ has not yet established, has been suggested that the drug PZQ acts as an antagonist of calcium ion channels (Ca2+) that induce the influx of Ca2+ and an indirect
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