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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences logoLink to Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
. 2002 Jan 29;357(1417):101–107. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2001.1040

Metabolic pathway analysis in trypanosomes and malaria parasites.

Alan H Fairlamb 1
PMCID: PMC1692913  PMID: 11839187

Abstract

Identification of novel drug targets is required for the development of new classes of drugs to overcome drug resistance and replace less efficacious treatments. In theory, knowledge of the entire genome of a pathogen identifies every potential drug target in any given microbe. In practice, the sheer complexity and the inadequate or inaccurate annotation of genomic information makes target identification and selection somewhat more difficult. Analysis of metabolic pathways provides a useful conceptual framework for the identification of potential drug targets and also for improving our understanding of microbial responses to nutritional, chemical and other environmental stresses. A number of metabolic databases are available as tools for such analyses. The strengths and weaknesses of this approach are discussed.

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Selected References

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