The Plasmodium falciparum drugome and its polypharmacological implications

Malaria is a disease contracted by over 200 million people each year, mostly in developing countries. The primary causative agent, Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) has shown increased resistance to existing drugs, hence new treatments are needed quickly. To this end we performed a high-throughput systems-level analysis, mapping existing FDA drugs with the potential for repurposing against targets from the P. falciparum structural proteome. The resulting P. falciparum drugome (P.falciparum-drugome) was used to prioritize potential new anti-malaria candidate targets and highlight some novel FDA approved drugs that have apparent anti-malaria effects for possible use as multi-target therapeutics.