3D-QSAR studies on Plasmodium falciparam proteins: a mini-review

3D-QSAR has become a very important tool in the field of Drug Discovery, especially in important areas like malarial research. The 3D-QSAR is principally a ligand-based drug design but the bioactive conformation of the ligand can also be taken into account in constructing a 3D-QSAR model. The induction of receptor-based 3D-QSAR has been proven to give more robust statistical models. In this review, we have discussed the various 3D-QSAR works done so far which were aimed at combating malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparam. We have also discussed the various enzymes/receptors (targets) in Plasmodium falciparam for which the 3D-QSAR had been generated. The enzymes - wild and mutated dihydrofolate reductase, enoyl acyl protein carrier protein reductase, farnesyltransferase, cytochrome bc1, and falcipains were the major targets for pharmacophore-based drug design. Apart from the above-mentioned targets there were many scaffolds for which the target macromolecule was undefined and could have single/multiple targets. The generated 3D-QSAR model can be used to identify hits by screening the pharmacophore against a chemical library. In this review, the hits identified against various targets of plasmodium falciparam that have been discussed along with their basic scaffold. The various software programs and chemical databases that have been used in the generation of 3D-QSAR and screening were given. From this review, we understand that there is a considerable need to develop novel scaffolds that are different from the existing ligands to overcome cross-resistance.