Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases are some of the most important contributors to pain, suffering and poverty in the developing world. For parasitic diseases in general, vaccines are nonexistent and none are likely to have a significant impact in the foreseeable future. In the case of malaria, without a vaccine on the horizon and an increasing prevalence of resistance to commonly used therapeutic drugs, the need for additional anti-malarial drug development is obvious. However, several factors, including increased cost of development, have lead to the retreat of most pharmaceutical companies from the development of new anti-malarial therapeutics. The research and development described in this proposal utilizes a new cost effective approach to anti-malarial drug target discovery. We will use a comparative approach to identify potential therapeutic targets common to Plasmodium falciparum, Toxoplasma gondii and Eimeria tenella. This work will form the basis for a future phase II application, which will use the reagents developed here to identify broad spectrum apicomplexan specific inhibitor compounds.
