Enzyme is target in parasite
By Nathan Seppa
The flatworm that causes the tropical disease schistosomiasis has a newly discovered Achilles’ heel that drugmakers might be able to exploit.
The target is an enzyme called thioredoxin glutathione reductase (TGR). Biochemist David L. Williams of Illinois State University in Normal, and his colleagues identified the enzyme in the Schistosoma mansoni worm in earlier research.
To test TGR’s importance to the parasites, the researchers grew larvae in the lab and inserted fragments of RNA that would stop the enzyme’s production. The procedure killed the larvae, the researchers report in the June PloS Medicine.