Plasmodium NEK-1 kinase Protein: Potential targets for disease control

Malaria remains a public health problem with more than 3.2 billion people at risk of infection, recording 219 million cases in 2018. Recent reports of resistance to current treatments for malaria highlighted the importance for new therapeutics research. Nek-1 protein has shown to be an essential molecule for the development of the parasite. This feature turning Nek1 as an essential target for the treatment of this pathology1. In the present study, we use different bioinformatics tools for Nek1 modeling by homology. After, we analyzed the presence of potential interaction with commercially available chemical molecules. Finally, we evaluated the antiplasmodial activity of these chemicals in vitro tests. The results stablished 231 interactions, of which 17 had antiplasmodial activity in the screening phenotypes. The use of bioinformatics tools, together with biological validation tests reduce time and costs in the search for new compounds, useful for the treatment and potential control of malaria.