Malaria

Malaria is still a major threat to human health causing millions of deaths worldwide. The major causative agent of the disease is the members of the genus Plasmodium, especially P.falciparum and P.vivax. Research over the years have identified a number of potential drug targets - mainly proteins in the parasite. Because of the increasing resistance to conventional therapeutics,identification and characterization of new targets and inhibitors is an immediate requirement to combat the disease.

Information about drug targets and the effects of inhibitors is spread in the published literature and other databases.A researcher intending to work on a particular target has the added task of scanning these databases to collect all relevant information related to the experiment.

Malaria Drug Targets

Malaria Drug Targets is a database which provides current information on potential drug targets and inhibitors.The information available includes, but not limited to

  • Target Sequence and Structure information
  • Target's presence in human
  • Visualization of active sites and other important regions in the targets
  • Visualization of motifs, domains, ligand interactions
  • Experimental parameters for inhibitors(from published literature)like Ki, IC50, if available
  • Information related to drug resistance

MDT is a work in progress. A sample entry is available for Glutathione S-transferase and Lactate Dehydrogenase from Plasmodium falciparum