A new public data set has been released from the neglected disease drug discovery team at Northeastern University (Boston, MA) and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, as reported in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry this week (DOI: 10.1021/jm201148s). This data set consists of a range of established human phosphodiesterase inhibitors, tested for inhibition against the phosphodiesterases B1 and B2 of Trypanosoma brucei.
The Laboratory for Neglected Disease Drug Discovery at Northeastern University will publically release compound structure and biological activity data as a matter of course immediately upon publication. Research projects primarily employ a target repurposing approach, wherein essential pathogen targets are matched with proven druggable human homologs. The pathogen targets (or the pathogens themselves) are tested for susceptibility to established inhibitors of the human homologs, providing a potential starting point for optimization of new anti-infective agents, or even opportunities for direct repurposing of existing drugs.
For more information, contact Mike Pollastri at Northeastern University (m.pollastri@neu.edu), or check out the laboratory website: http://www.northeastern.edu/pollastri/.