Abstract: Effective chemotherapy requires the inhibition of critical molecular processes in the target pathogen without significantly impinging on those of the host. This simple principle requires that the host and pathogen must be different in some aspect, usually in a metabolic or structural pathway. However, apicomplexan parasites such as Toxoplasma gondii and the hosts that they infect are both eukaryotic organisms. Thus, finding unique drug targets in essential pathways is difficult, and requires extensive searches for unique processes that can serve as effective targets for drug design. The current treatment of toxoplasmosis reflects our former and very limited understanding of these parasites, as the drugs are confined to broad-spectrum antibiotics or variations on antibacterial compounds. Moreover, their specific mode of action in the parasite remained largely undefined until the advent of genetic, genomic and cellular methods of investigation (for reviews, see refs. 1–3).
Publication Year: 2002
Publication Date: 2002-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 1
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