Table 13.

Plasmodial kinases targeted by inhibiting compounds described in this review.

Protein	Role of Protein—Consequence(s) of Inhibition 1	Development Stage of the Most Advanced Compound(s)	Studies Reviewed
CDPK1	Egress and invasion processes regulator—Inhibition of asexual blood-stage growth and gametogenesis, reduced mosquito infection	Hit to lead	[23,24,28,29,30,31,32,33]
CDPK4	Exflagellation regulator—Reduced mosquito infection	Lead optimization	[33,36,37,38,39]
CK	Transformation of choline into phosphocholine	Hit discovery—Target validation needed	[41,45,46,47]
CK2	Serine/threonine kinase, possibly phosphorylating many proteins during asexual blood-stage	Hit discovery—In vitro activity to be determined	[50]
CLK1	Phosphorylation of spliceosomes proteins—Inhibition of asexual and sexual blood-stage growth	Hit discovery—In vitro activity to be determined	[53,55]
CLK3	Phosphorylation of spliceosomes proteins—All-stage activity	Hit to lead	[53,54,56]
PanK	Transformation of pantothenate into 4′-phosphopantothenate	Hit discovery	[58,59,60]
DPCK	Transformation of dephospho-coenzyme A into coenzyme A	Hit discovery	[61]
FKk8	Not defined	Hit discovery	[64,65]
GK	Transformation of (deoxy) guanosine-monophosphate into (deoxy) guanosine-diphosphate	Hit discovery—Target validation needed	[46]
GSK3	Not defined	Hit to lead	[70,71]
HK	Transformation of glucose into glucose-6-phosphate	Hit discovery	[74,75]
MAP2	Involved in many key cellular processes—Inhibition of asexual blood-stage and exflagellation	Hit discovery—Target validation needed	[77]
MRK	Regulation of gene expression and DNA replication	Hit discovery	[79,80,81]
NEK1	Regulation of cell division processes	Hit discovery	[83,84]
PI4K	Transformation of phosphatidyl-inositol into phosphatidyl-inositol 4 phosphate—All-stage activity	Phase II clinical trial	[85,87,89,90,91,92]
PK5	Cyclin-dependent like kinase, possibly regulating cell division	Hit discovery	[95]
PK6	Cyclin-dependent like kinase, role not defined	Hit discovery - In vitro activity to be determined	[33]
PK7	Orphan kinase, role not defined—Inhibition of asexual blood-stage and reduced mosquito infection	Hit to lead	[101,102,103]
PK9	Orphan kinase, role unclear, able to phosphorylate PfUBC13—Deregulation of asexual hepatic stage growth	Hit discovery	[100]
PKG	Serine/threonine kinase—All-stage activity	Hit to lead	[109,110,112,113,114,116,117,118]
TMK	Transformation of thymidine monophosphate into thymidine diphosphate	Hit to lead	[121,122,123]

¹ When not specified, each of these proteins is assumed to at least inhibit asexual blood-stage growth.