Repurposing trypanocidal drugs to tackle amoebic gill disease in Atlantic Salmon

阿米巴鳃病（Amoebic gill disease，AGD）是由秘鲁新阿米巴（Neoparamoeba perurans）引起的一种主要病害.目前的治疗选择非常有限。利用格拉斯哥大学现有的最先进的药物发现管道，我们建议测试现有的许可和实验性药物用于对抗动质体疾病（恰加斯病，睡眠病，利什曼原虫）的活性。在爱尔兰的一个独特的试验地点对候选药物进行体内测试之前，在苏格兰进行体外perurans试验。关键是N perurans有一个内共生动质体（一个生活在每个N. perurans细胞），它依赖于基本的代谢过程。基于杀死内共生体将导致宿主死亡的假设，我们的方法有望提供新的药物来解决水产养殖中的一个棘手问题。这样做甚至可能降低这些药物在热带地区的医疗和兽医应用的成本。

Amoebic gill disease (AGD), caused by Neoparamoeba perurans, is as a major disease in salmonid aquaculture. Treatment options are currently extremely limited. Using an existing state-of the-art drug discovery pipeline at the University of Glasgow, we propose to test the potency of existing licensed and experimental drugs used against the kinetoplastid diseases (Chagas Disease, Sleeping Sickness, Leishmania) for activity against N. perurans in vitro in Scotland prior to in vivo testing of the drug candidates at a unique trial site in Ireland. Crucially N. perurans has an endosymbiotic kinetoplastid (a kinetoplastid living inside every N. perurans cell) on which it relies for essential metabolic processes. Working on the hypothesis that killing the endosymbiont will lead to death of its host, our approach promises to deliver new drugs to address an intractable problem in aquaculture. In doing so it may even drive the costs of these drugs down for medical and veterinary applications in the tropics.