A review of recent patents on the protozoan parasite HSP90 as a drug target

Abstract

Diseases caused by protozoan parasites are still an important health problem. These parasites can cause a wide spectrum of diseases, some of which are severe and have high morbidity or mortality if untreated. Since they are still uncontrolled, it is important to find novel drug targets and develop new therapies to decrease their remarkable social and economic impact on human societies. In the past years, human HSP90 has become an interesting drug target that has led to a large number of investigations both at state organizations and pharmaceutical companies, followed by clinical trials. The finding that HSP90 has important biological roles in some protozoan parasites like Plasmodium spp, Toxoplasma gondii and trypanosomatids has allowed the expansion of the results obtained in human cancer to these infections. This review summarizes the latest important findings showing protozoan HSP90 as a drug target and presents three patents targeting T. gondii, P. falciparum and trypanosomatids HSP90.