| New purine synthesis blocking drug kills malaria parasites. |
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| Science Daily: The Einstein researchers exploited what is arguably P. falciparum's Achilles' heel: it can't synthesize purines, vital building blocks for making DNA. Instead, the parasite must make purines indirectly, by using an enzyme called purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) to make a purine precursor called hypoxanthine. By inhibiting PNP, the drug BCX4945 kills the parasites by starving them of the purines they need to survive. |