Modelling Inhibitors of Plasmepsin II

In 2014, Malaria is thought to have killed between 360 000 -750 000 people of which most were young children.The cause of Malaria is the parasite genus Plasmodium, which has begun to show considerable resistance to many of the available medicines. Thus it is clear that new drugs need to be discovered with new mechanisms of parasite inhibition. One such thread of research is to inhibit the ability to catabolise the haemoglobin, a process essential to parasite survival. The enzymes in question to be inhibited are a group of proteases called plasmepsins (Plm I, II and IV). Several inhibitors of Plm II have been identified by Esmark et al and using their activity test data a model can be created to try and predict activity based on other characteristics, or descriptors, of the molecule.