Comparative protein modeling of spermidine synthase from Plasmodium falciparum: A potential target for anti-malarial drug therapy

Malaria, caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium, affects up to 500 million individuals and kills over 1 million people every year. The increasing resistance of the malaria parasites has enforced strategies for finding new drug targets. In recent years, enzymes associated with the polyamine metabolism have attracted attention as drug targets. Cytosolic Plasmodium falciparum spermidine synthase (PfPAPT) is a potential target for antimalarial chemotherapy. Contrasting with the other enzymes involved in the parasite polyamine amine biosynthesis, little information is available about this enzyme, and its crystallographic structure is unknown yet. In this paper I propose a theoretical low-resolution 3D model for PfPAPT based on crystal structure of the Arabidopsis thaliana, by multiple alignment followed by intensive optimization; validation and dynamic simulations in water. Comparison between the active sites of PfPAPT and human PAPT revealed key differences that could be useful for the design of new selective inhibitors of Plasmodium PAPT.