Parasitic Helminths

This third volume in the successful 'Drug Discovery in Infectious Diseases' series is the first to deal with drug discovery in helminthic infections in human and animals. The result is a broad overview of different drug target evaluation methods, including specific examples of successful drug development against helminthes, and with a whole section devoted to vaccine development.
With its well-balanced mix of high-profile contributors from academia and industry, this handbook and reference will appeal to a wide audience, including parasitologists, pharmaceutical industry, epidemiologists, and veterinary scientists.

Autorentext
Volume editor:
Conor R. Caffrey completed his Ph.D. thesis research in 1993 at University College Dublin. He then moved to the Department of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at the University of Heidelberg as a Wellcome Trust Travelling Research Scholar. Between 1998 and 2000, he was a post-doctoral scholar at the Department of Pathology of the University of California San Francisco. After a brief faculty appointment at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Dr. Caffrey returned to UCSF in 2001 to direct the Biochemistry and Molecular Parasitology Core of the Sandler Center the Sandler Center for Basic Research in Parasitic Diseases (now the Sandler Center for Drug Discovery). Dr. Caffrey?s current research focus is pre-clinical drug discovery for tropical infectious diseases, particularly schistosomiasis and African trypanosomiasis.

Series Editor:
Prof. Dr. Paul M. Selzer studied Biology, Parasitology, and Biochemistry at the University of Tubingen, Germany, where he also received his PhD in Biochemistry on subjects related to the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei. As a post-doctoral fellow he spent three years in the parasitology and tropical disease laboratory of Prof. James H. McKerrow at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Within the Molecular Design Institute at UCSF Dr. Selzer was introduced to modern drug discovery approaches and technologies. He broadened his scientific and business knowledge as a researcher within diverse pharmaceutical companies including Boehringer Mannheim GmbH, Germany, SmithKline Beecham p.l.c., UK, Hoechst Roussel Vet GmbH, Germany, and finally Intervet Innovation GmbH, Germany, a part of Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health. Dr. Selzer is also a teacher in Biochemistry, Bioinformatics, and Chemoinformatics at the University of Tubingen in the Department of Biochemistry, which awarded him the title of Professor for his achievements in teaching and research. In 2008, he was also awarded an Honorary Professorship in the Department of Infection and Immunity at the University of Glasgow, UK.

Inhalt
Foreword (Peter Hotez)
Preface
TARGETS
Ligand gated Ion channels as targets for anthelmintic drugs: past, current and future perspectives (Kristin Lees, Ann Sluder, Niroda Shannan, Lance Hammerland and David Sattelle)
How relevant is caenorhabditis elegans as a model for the analysis of parasitic nematode biology? (Lindy Holden-Dye and Robert J Walker)
Integrating and mining helminth genomes to discover and prioritize novel therapeutic targets (Dhanasekaran Shanmugam, Stuart A Ralph, Santiago J Carmona,Gregory J Crowther, David S Roos and Fernan Aguero)
Recent progress in transcriptomics of key gastrointestinal nematodes of animals: fundamental research toward new intervention strategies (Cinzia Cantacessi, Bronwyn E. Campbell, Aaron R. Jex, Ross S. Hall, Neil D. Young, Matthew J. Nolan, Robin B. Gasser)
Harnessing genomic technologies to explore the molecular biology of liver flukes - major implications for fundamental and applied research (Neil D. Young, Aaron R. Jex, Cinzia Cantacessi, Bronwyn E. Campbell and Robin B. Gasser)
RNA Interference: A potential discovery tool for therapeutic targets of parasitic nematodes (Collette Britton)
RNA Interference as a tool for drug discovery in parasitic flatworms
(Akram A. Da'dara and Patrick J. Skelly)

SCREEN
Mechanism-based screening strategies for anthelmintic discovery (Timothy G. Geary)
Identification and profiling of nematicidal compounds in veterinary parasitology (Andreas Rohwer, Jurgen Lutz , Christophe Chassaing, M. Uphoff, AR Heckeroth, Paul Selzer)
Quantitative high-content screening-based drug discovery against helmintic diseases (Rahul Singh)
Use of rodent models in the discovery of novel anthelmintics (Rebecca Fankhauser, Linsey R. Cozzie, Bakela Nare, Kerrie Powell, Ann E. Sluder and Lance G. Hammerland)
To kill a mocking worm: Strategies to improve Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system for use in anthelmintic discovery (Andrew R. Burns and Peter J. Roy)

DRUGS
Anthelmintic drugs: Tools and shortcuts for the long road from discovery to product (Eugenio L. de Hostos and Tue Nguyen)
Antinematodal drugs, modes of action and resistance: And worms will not come to thee (Shakespeare: Cymbeline: IV, ii)(Alan P. Robertson, Samuel K. Buxton, Sreekanth Puttachary, Sally M. Williamson, Adrian J. Wolstenholme, Cedric Neveu, Jacques Cabaret, Claude L. Charvet and Richard J. Martin)
Drugs and targets to perturb the symbiosis of Wolbachia and filarial nematodes (Mark J Taylor, Louise Ford, Achim Hoerauf, Ken Pfarr, Jeremy M Foster, Sanjay Kumar and Barton E Slatko)
Promise of Bacillus thuringiensis crystal proteins as anthelmintics (Yan Hu and Raffi V. Aroian)
Monepantel: From discovery to mode of action (Ronald Kaminsky and Lucien Rufener)
The discovery, mode of action and commercialization of Derquantel (Debra J. Woods, Steven J. Maeder, Alan P. Robertson, Richard J. Martin, Timothy G. Geary, David P. Thompson, Sandra S. Johnson and George A. Conder)
Praziquantel: Too good to be replaced? (Livia Pica-Mattoccia and Donato Cioli)
Drug discovery for trematodiases: Challenges and progress (Conor R. Caffrey, Jurg Utzinger and Jennifer Keiser)

VACCINES
Barefoot thru' the Valley of Darkness: Preclinical development of a human hookworm vaccine (Jeffrey M Bethony, Maria Victoria Periago and Amar Jariwala)
Vaccines linked to chemotherapy: A new approach to control helminth infections (Sara Lustigman, James H. McKerrow and Maria Elena Bottazzi)
Antifilarial vaccine development: Present and future approaches (Sara Lustigman, David Abraham and Thomas R. Klei)
Proteases as vaccines against gastrointestinal nematode parasites of sheep and cattle (David Knox)
Schistosomiasis vaccines: New approaches to antigen discovery and promising new candidates (Alex Loukas, Soraya Gaze, Mark Pearson, Denise Doolan, Philip Felgner, David Diemert, Donald P. McManus, Patrick Driguez and Jeffrey Bethony)
Sm14 Schistosoma mansoni fatty acid-binding protein: Molecular basis for an antihelminth vaccine (Miriam Tendler, Celso Raul Romero Ramos and Andrew J.G. Simpson)
Mechanisms of immune modulation by Fasciola hepatica: Importance for vaccine development and for novel immunotherapeutics (Mark W. Robinson, John P. Dalton, Sandra M. O'Neill and Sheila M. Donnelly)
Prospects for immunoprophylaxis against Fasciola hepatica (liver fluke) (Terry W. Spithill, Carlos Carmona, David Piedrafita and Peter M. Smooker)
Vaccines Against Cestode Parasites (Marshall W. Lightowlers, Charles G. Gauci, Abdul Jabbar and Cristian Alvarez)