European Commission COST Action B9 Chemotherapy of protozoal infections

Chairman: Fred Opperdoes


Expert meeting on "Polyamine metabolism of parasitic protozoa as a drug target"

Meeting organizers: Rolf Walter (Hamburg) Sylke Müller (Hamburg) Graham Coombs (Glasgow), Reto Brun (Basel)

Time: July 1 to 4, 2000

Location: Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Straße 74,20359 Hamburg

The meeting is sponsored by Behörde für Wissenschaft und Forschung, Hamburgische Wissenschaftliche Stiftung, SmithKline Beecham Stiftung, Glaxo-Wellcome and Vereinigung der Freunde des Tropeninstituts Hamburgs


Program

SATURDAY 1 July:

19.00 Registration and Welcome Reception at the BNI

SUNDAY 2 July:

14.00 Welcome: Bernhard Fleischer (Director of the BNI)

Introductionary remarks: Rolf Walter

Session 1: Polyamines as drug targets (Chair: Fred Opperdoes)

14.15 Nikolaus Seiler: Polyamine metabolism as target in cancer therapy
15.00 Meg Phillips: The polyamine biosynthetic pathway in Trypanosoma brucei
15.30 Coffee break

Session 2: Polyamines in parasitic protozoa 1 (Chair: Rentala Madhubala)

16.30 Buddy Ullman: Genetic analysis of the polyamine biosynthetic pathway in Leishmania
17.00 Lo Persson: Turnover of ODC in trypanosomatids
17.30 Sylke Müller: Polyamines in Plasmodium
20.00 Joint dinner (optional)

MONDAY 3 July:

Session 3: Polyamines in parasitic protozoa 2 (Chair: Buddy Ullman)

9.30 Mike Barrett: Transporters of polyamines in parasitic protozoa
10.00 Babu Tekwani: Polyamine transport functions of Leishmania donovani and the mouse erythrocytes infected with malaria parasites
10.30 Coffee break
11.00 Rafael Balana-Fouce: Cloning and expression of S-adenosyl-methionine synthetase in Leishmania parasites

11.30 Rentala Madhubala: The genomic structure of the plasmodial ODC/AdoMetDC
12.00 Kai Lüersen: ODC/AdoMetDC, a unique bifunctional protein in Plasmodium falciparum
12.30 Lunch

Session 4: Validation of drug targets and modes of action of putative polyamine antagonists (Chair: Graham Coombs)

14.00 Meg Phillips: The X-ray structure of Trypanosoma brucei ODC: Implications for the design of new inhibitors
14.30 Olle Heby: Polyamine biosynthetic enzymes as drug targets in Trypanosoma cruzi
15.00 Coffee break
15.30 Luise Krauth-Siegel: The trypanothione metabolism as a drug target
16.00 Mike Barrett: Are diamidines polyamine antagonists?
16.30 Steven Ealick: Three-dimensional structure of S-adenosyl-methionine decarboxylase

Harbour cruise

19.30 Joint dinner (optional)

TUESDAY 4 July:

Session 5: Drug discovery (including rational drug design and efficacy testing) (Chair: Luise Krauth-Siegel)

9.00 Michel Vaultier: Synthesis and structure of silicon analogues of polyamines.
9.30 Elisabeth Davioud-Charvet: Structurally diverse series of substituted polyamine derivatives as antitrypanosomal and antimalarial drugs
10.00 Reto Brun: Screening of polyamine inhibitors against trypanosomatids and plasmodia

10.30 Coffee break

Session 6: Summary session. Antiprotozoal drugs against polyamines: the way forward (Chair: Meg Phillips)

11.00 Agreeing priorities for future studies