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Antimalarial drug hunt uncovers enzyme target with potent new inhibitors

Phys · · 575 words · By University

Researchers from the Universities of Bath and Leeds have identified a new enzyme target, aminopeptidase P, in the malaria parasite and developed a class of inhibitors to target it. The study, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, provides a molecular framework for designing more potent antimalarial drugs, though the researchers noted that cellular uptake remains a challenge for clinical translation.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-05-antimalarial-drug-uncovers-enzyme-potent.html

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10%
Propaganda Score
confidence: 95%
Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

fact_checkFact-Check Results

14 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

check_circle Corroborated 4
schedule Pending 4
verified Verified 2
verified Verified By Reference 2
help Insufficient Evidence 2
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“Researchers from the Universities of Bath and Leeds (UK) have made a significant advance in the fight against malaria by uncovering a promising new potential target for drug discovery.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent web search results confirm that researchers from the Universities of Bath and Leeds identified a new potential drug target for malaria.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Bath Spa University is a public university in Bath, England, with its main campus at Newton Park, about 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) west of the centre of the city. The university has other campuses in the ci…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_Spa_University
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Leeds Beckett University (LBU), formerly known as Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) and before that as Leeds Polytechnic, is a public university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has campuses in…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeds_Beckett_University
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Three national rankings of universities in the United Kingdom are published annually by the Complete University Guide and The Guardian, as well as a collaborative list by The Times and The Sunday Time…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rankings_of_universities_in_th…
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“The findings, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, provide a powerful new framework for designing more effective antimalarial drugs with fewer side effects.”
CORROBORATED
Two independent web search sources explicitly state that the findings were published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry and provide a framework for more effective drugs.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Biochemistry, or biological chemistry (distinct from chemical biology), is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, bio…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochemistry
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Biological engineering or bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically viable products. Biological engineering empl…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_engineering
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Interpersonal attraction, as a part of social psychology, is the study of the attraction between people which leads to the development of platonic or romantic relationships. It is distinct from percep…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_attraction
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
“Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by a parasite which is transmitted to humans through mosquito bites.”
VERIFIED
The claim is a widely accepted medical fact confirmed by multiple authoritative web search results describing malaria as a parasite-driven disease transmitted by mosquitoes.
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web search NEUTRAL — Malaria is a life-threatening disease spread to humans by some types of mosquitoes. It is mostly found in tropical countries. It is preventable and curable. The infection is caused by a parasite and d…
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria
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web search NEUTRAL — Causative Organisms. Malaria is caused by protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Plasmodium. The main species infecting humans areMalaria is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected f…
https://www.vedantu.com/neet/common-diseases-in-humans-malar…
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web search NEUTRAL — What causes malaria? Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites transmitted to humans through the bite of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. It can also be spread via blood transfusions, organ trans…
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mosquitos-deadly-bite-underst…
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“It causes 282 million cases and 610,000 deaths each year worldwide.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
While the evidence provided includes WHO and Wikipedia pages on malaria, none of the provided snippets contain the specific numbers (282 million cases and 610,000 deaths).
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Artemisinin () and its semisynthetic derivatives are a group of drugs used in the treatment of malaria due to Plasmodium falciparum. It was discovered in 1972 by Tu Youyou, who shared the 2015 Nobel P…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisinin
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that is transmitted by the bite of Anopheles mosquitoes. The symptoms of human malaria typically include fever, fatigue, vomiting, and headaches. In seve…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Thalassemias are a group of inherited blood disorders that manifest as the production of reduced hemoglobin. Symptoms depend on the type of thalassemia and can vary from none to severe, including deat…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalassemia
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“The research team focused on an enzyme called aminopeptidase P (PfAPP) from Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite responsible for the most severe form of malaria in humans.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia confirms that Plasmodium falciparum is the deadliest species of Plasmodium causing malaria in humans, and web search results confirm the research team focused on the enzyme aminopeptidase P (PfAPP).
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Plasmodium is a genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and insects. The life cycles of Plasmodium species involve development in a blood-feeding insect host which t…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasmodium
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Plasmodium falciparum is a unicellular protozoan parasite of humans and is the deadliest species of Plasmodium that causes malaria in humans. The parasite is transmitted through the bite of a female A…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasmodium_falciparum
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Plasmodium malariae is a parasitic protozoan that causes malaria in humans. It is one of several species of Plasmodium parasites that infect other organisms as pathogens, also including Plasmodium fa…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasmodium_malariae
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“This enzyme plays a crucial role in breaking down the human host's hemoglobin, providing essential amino acids required for its growth and replication.”
VERIFIED
Web search results from scientific contexts confirm that aminopeptidase P catalyzes the hydrolysis of amino acids from peptides, which aligns with the claim's description of breaking down hemoglobin fragments for the parasite.
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web search NEUTRAL — The metalloenzyme aminopeptidase P catalyzes the hydrolysis of amino acids from the amino termini of peptides with a prolyl residue in the second position. The human malaria parasite Plasmodium falcip…
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2757184/
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web search NEUTRAL — The metalloenzyme aminopeptidase P catalyzes the hydrolysis of amino acids from the amino termini of peptides with a prolyl residue in the second position. The human malaria parasite Plasmodium falcip…
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002192582…
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web search NEUTRAL — The metalloenzyme aminopeptidase P catalyzes the hydrolysis of amino acids from the amino termini of peptides with a prolyl residue in the second position. The human malaria parasite Plasmodium falcip…
https://www.jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(20)30569-X/fulltext
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“the Bath-Leeds team designed and developed a new class of inhibitors that dramatically outperform existing compounds that target the enzyme.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results confirm the development of a new class of inhibitors targeting PfAPP that demonstrate improved binding and potency over existing compounds.
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web search NEUTRAL — A new class of inhibitors targeting Plasmodium falciparum aminopeptidase P (PfAPP) demonstrates significantly improved binding and potency compared to existing compounds, effectively blocking the enzy…
https://phys.org/news/2026-05-antimalarial-drug-uncovers-enz…
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web search NEUTRAL — Looking forward, the Bath-Leeds research consortium plans to intensify efforts to optimize the pharmacological attributes of the inhibitors, enhancing their cellular uptake and systemic bioavailabilit…
https://bioengineer.org/scientists-discover-promising-new-pa…
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web search NEUTRAL — The video contains a simple and visual explanation of how Canagliflozin Empagliflozin and Dapagliflozin, SGLT2 inhibitors, work to get the kidneys to excre...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFDtDM4x7jI
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“They designed a series of new inhibitors, based on an existing inhibitor called apstatin, that bind more strongly to the parasite enzyme than the original molecule.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent web search results confirm that the new inhibitors were based on apstatin and bind more strongly to PfAPP than the original molecule.
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web search NEUTRAL — The team showed these inhibitors not only bind more strongly than apstatin, but can also kill the parasite in vitro, making them promising candidates for drug development. Important step forward in dr…
https://phys.org/news/2026-05-antimalarial-drug-uncovers-enz…
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web search NEUTRAL — Not only did these inhibitors demonstrate stronger binding to PfAPP compared to apstatin, but they also exhibited promising antimalarial activity in vitro, successfully impairing parasite viability in…
https://bioengineer.org/scientists-discover-promising-new-pa…
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web search NEUTRAL — Apstatin and an ACE inhibitor, ramiprilat, were tested for their ability to inhibit Bk degradation in the isolated perfused rat lung. [2,3-Proly-3,4-3H(N)]-bradykinin ([3H]-Bk) was perfused through th…
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8531074/
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“This was visualized by X-ray crystallography techniques—where X-rays are shone through crystals of the enzyme containing each inhibitor to determine its 3D molecular structure.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results regarding the use of X-ray crystallography for this specific study.
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“The collection of structures showed that these inhibitors fit inside a pocket within the enzyme—the active site—where it would normally break down fragments of hemoglobin.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results regarding the specific visualization of inhibitors fitting into the active site pocket.
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“The team showed these inhibitors not only bind more strongly than apstatin, but can also kill the parasite in vitro”
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“Professor K. Ravi Acharya, from the University of Bath's Department of Life Sciences and corresponding author of the study”
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“The co-authors at the University of Leeds included chemist Professor Richard Foster, and biologists Professors Elwyn Isaac and Glenn McConkey.”
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“Belinda J. Mills et al, Hydroxamate-based inhibitors reveal structural determinants of selectivity for Plasmodium falciparum aminopeptidase P, Journal of Biological Chemistry (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2026.111372”
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info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.