May 20, 2010: GlaxoSmithKline has published new research identifying promising potential leads to develop new medicines to treat malaria. The research comes from a year-long screening of more than two million compounds in GSK’s chemical library to seek out those that could inhibit the malaria parasite, P. falciparum, and reports on an analysis of the more than 13,500 hits that showed greatest activity.
The largest group of compounds, where their mode of action is understood, were kinase inhibitors and GSK suggests that further exploration of these compounds might lead to novel antimalarial therapeutic strategies. The study also identified compounds that may be inhibiting processes in human red blood cells which could be necessary for the parasite’s survival. This opens up a novel possibility of fighting infection by looking to halt these processes in human red blood cells, rather than stopping the malaria parasite itself.
In January of this year, as part of the company’s commitment to open innovation in this area, GSK announced its intention to share data and chemical structures identified in its screening of the two million compounds from its library against the parasites that cause malaria using on-line resources. The 13,533 hits are accessible on public websites. More than 80 per cent of these molecules are proprietary to GSK, and therefore the information is new to the research community.
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