TDR Targets: identificación y priorización computacional de blancos para el desarrollo de drogas contra patógenos humanos.

AGÜERO FG, BERRIMAN M, BUCKNER FS, CARMONA S, CROWTHER G, HERTZ-FOWLER C, NWAKA S, PAIN A, RALPH S, RIECHERS A, ROOS DS, SHANMUGAM D, SUZUKI T, VERLINDE CL, VAN VOORHIS WC

La Habana, Cuba

Congreso; VIII Congreso Centroamericano y del Caribe de Parasitología y Medicina Tropical; 2007

Instituto de Parasitología "Pedro Kourí"

<!-- @page { size: 21.59cm 27.94cm; margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> For the major tropical diseases, chemotherapeutic agents are generally inadequate due to limited efficacy, toxicity and/or drug resistance. The recent availability of the genome sequences for five tropical disease pathogens (Plasmodium falciparum, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Trypanosoma brucei, Leishmania major y Trypanosoma cruzi),and the anticipated completion of the sequences of important parasitic helminths (Schistosoma mansoni, Brugia malayi, Onchocerca) created a unique opportunity to identify potential new drug targets to combat tropical diseases. We are developing an open-access web site (TDR Targets) to assist scientists to exploit the available genomic information to search for potential drug targets. TDR Targets allows scientists to prioritize drug targets by interrogating an extensive database with their own criteria. This database combines the large volume of existing genomic and bioinformatic information for each organism with both curated and automatically extracted data from existing literature and other relevant databases. A wealth of structural, genetic and chemical data is also available for orthologs of the putative targets, from model eukaryotes and prokaryotes. The database is organized to take advantage of this data by mapping all genes from the target organisms to orthologous genes from model organisms. User-assigned numerical weightings for desirable drug-target characteristics are used to rank putative targets, and create prioritized lists according to the user's preferences. A substantial effort has gone into manual curation and annotation of targets to assist scientists in identifying curated high-value chemotherapeutic targets. The database is currently available at http://tdrtargets.org. This project was initiated by and is supported by a collaborative grant from the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), World Health Organization.