Purine salvage enzymes of parasites as targets for structure-based inhibitor design

Nearly 30 years have passed since purine salvage enzymes were first proposed as targets of drugs in the chemotherapeutic treatment of diseases caused by parasites. The rationale behind a structure-based approach to the design of chemotherapeutic agents involves the use of information about substrate preference and the three-dimensional structure of a target enzyme to design potent selective inhibitors of that enzyme. This approach is outlined here by Syd Craig and Ann Eakin, as it applies to the possible design of inhibitors of a purine salvage enzyme, the hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase.