Lead Identification to Clinical Candidate Selection: Drugs for Chagas Disease

描述（由申请人提供）：南美锥虫病在整个拉丁美洲非常流行，是一种由寄生虫克氏锥虫引起的严重和使人衰弱的感染，可导致严重的心肌病或巨综合征。由于与当前疗法（苯并咪唑和硝呋替莫）相关的显著耐药性、毒性和低功效，迫切需要新的药物。加州大学旧金山分校桑德勒中心最近开发了一种新的高通量筛选（HTS）试验，以筛选化疗药物对T细胞内致病阶段的疗效。克鲁兹为了响应NIAID RFA-AI-09-034与产品开发的合作伙伴关系，我们建议支持诺华基金会基因组研究所（GNF），桑德勒中心和加州大学旧金山分校小分子发现中心（SMDC）之间的合作，以实现该倡议在被忽视的热带疾病方面的几个研究目标和目标。这三个中心拥有卓越的临床前药物发现计划和能力，包括广泛的化合物库。我们建议利用这种新开发的T。Cruzi测定法，以鉴定用于药物化学的潜在化学型。从鉴定的化学型中，我们将选择至少两个具有铅样性质的化学型系列，用于使用迭代药物化学铅优化策略进行进一步开发。该策略将联合收割机化合物功效和药物样特征（ADMET）的体外测试与体内药代动力学和功效特性的评估相结合，以持续指导进一步的药物化学工作。我们预计，在资助期结束时，我们将确定一到三个完全优化的候选药物，这些药物具有良好的疗效、药代动力学和毒性特征，可作为治疗南美锥虫病的潜在药物进行进一步的转化开发。 项目叙述：目前迫切需要治疗由克氏锥虫感染引起的被忽视的热带疾病查加斯病的新药。对于这项资助，我们建议利用UCSF开发的一种新的克氏锥虫高通量筛选试验来筛选GNF（诺华基金会基因组研究所）提供的一个大型高质量文库，UCSF和GNF将共同使用该筛选的线索来开展一项完整的药物化学铅优化计划。在授权期结束时，我们预计将有1-3个完全优化的临床候选药物，具有良好的疗效，药代动力学和毒性特征，准备进入IND使能研究，为启动人体临床试验做准备。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chagas' disease, highly prevalent throughout Latin America, is a serious and debilitating infection caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi that results in severe cardiomyopathy or megasyndromes. Due to the significant drug resistance, toxicity and low efficacy associated with the current therapies, benznidazole and nifurtimox, new medicines are critically needed. The Sandler Center at UCSF has recently developed a new high-throughput screening (HTS) assay to screen chemotherapeutic agents for efficacy against the intracellular pathogenic stage of T. cruzi. In response to NIAID RFA-AI-09-034 partnerships with product development, we propose to support collaboration between the Genome Institute of the Novartis Foundation (GNF), the Sandler Center and the Small Molecule Discovery Center (SMDC) at UCSF to meet several of the research goals and objectives of this initiative in neglected tropical diseases. The three centers possess excellent preclinical drug discovery programs and capabilities, including extensive compound libraries. We propose to run an HTS campaign utilizing this newly developed T. cruzi assay to identify potential chemotypes for medicinal chemistry lead optimization. From chemotypes identified, we will select at least two chemotype series that possess lead-like properties for further development using an iterative medicinal chemistry lead optimization strategy. This strategy will combine in vitro testing of compound efficacy and drug-like characteristics (ADMET) with assessment of in vivo pharmacokinetic and efficacy properties to continually guide further medicinal chemistry efforts. We anticipate that at the end of the grant period we will have identified one to three fully optimized candidates with good efficacy, pharmacokinetic and toxicity profiles for further translational development as potential drugs to treat Chagas' disease. Project Narrative: New drugs to treat the neglected tropical disease Chagas', caused by infections of the Trypanosoma cruzi parasite, are urgently required. For this grant, we propose to utilize a novel Trypanosoma cruzi High Throughput Screening assay developed at UCSF to screen a large high quality library available from GNF (Genomic Institute of the Novartis Foundation), and jointly UCSF and GNF will use leads from this screen to embark on a full medicinal chemistry lead optimization program. At the end of the grant period we anticipate having 1-3 fully optimized clinical candidates with good efficacy, pharmacokinetic and toxicity profiles that are poised to enter into IND-enabling studies to prepare for initiating human clinical trials.