ABSTRACT
The development of new and effective antiprotozoal drugs has been difficult because of the close metabolic relationship between protozoa and mammalian cells. In this chapter, we highlight the importance of methionine salvage in the survival of parasitic protozoa and point out possibilities for chemotherapeutic intervention. We discuss in detail the chemotherapeutic exploitation of methylthioribose (MTR) kinase, an enzyme critical to methionine salvage in certain protozoa and other microbes. We show that analogues of MTR, if properly designed, are toxic to organisms that contain MTR kinase but not to mammalian cells which lack this enzyme.
