Aetiologic agents of diseases such as malaria and toxoplasmosis are found in representatives of the phylum Apicomplexa. Therefore, apicomplexan parasites are known to have a significant impact on public health. Epigenetic factors such as histone acetylation/deacetylation are among the main mechanisms of gene regulation in these parasites. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) have aroused a great deal of interest over the past 20 years for being promising targets in the development of drugs for treating several diseases such as cancer. In addition, they have also been shown to be effective for parasitic diseases. However, little is known about the structure of these proteins, as well as their interactions with specific ligands. In this paper, we modelled 14 HDACs from different apicomplexan parasites and performed molecular docking with 12 ligands analogous to the HDAC inhibitors FR235222 and apicidin, which had previously been tested against Toxoplasma gondii and Plasmodium falciparum. In this in silico study, we were able to gather relevant structural data regarding these proteins as well as insights into protein–ligand interactions for testing and developing drugs for these diseases.

DEAD Box RNA helicases are essential enzymes that are involved in RNA metabolic processes such as transcription, pre-mRNA splicing, translation initiation and RNA decay. We have previously over-expressed and biochemically characterized an immunodominant cDNA clone encoding DEAD box RNA helicase (BmL3-Helicase) isolated by immunoscreening of the larval stage cDNA library of Brugia malayi. In the current study, the 3D structure was determined and the immunoprophylactic efficacy of BmL3-Helicase was investigated by immunizing Mastomys coucha with the recombinant protein and subsequently challenging with B. malayi infective larvae. The immunization had an adverse outcome on the establishment of challenged larvae resulting in a 67·4% reduction in adult parasite recovery, a 86·7% decrease in the microfilarial density and profound sterility of the recovered female worms. The immune response thus generated was investigated by measuring the levels of specific antibodies including IgG subclasses, reactive oxygen species and cytokines.