Iota Pharmaceuticals, Top Institute Pharma, European Screening Port, Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz, Spanish National Research Council, Theodore Bilharz Research Institu
Top Institute said the four-year PhosphoDiEsterase inhibitors for Neglected Parasitic Diseases (PDE4NPD) project received €6 million ($8.2 million) under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The partners contributed an additional €1.8 million ($2.5 million) to the project. PDE4NPD is led by VU University Amsterdam and aims to combine structural biology and screening technologies to discover new molecules with drug-like properties against parasitic phosphodiesterases (PDEs). Under the project, the parties will also perform phenotypic screening on parasite species to identify agents that will kill them. The parties will focus on developing PDE inhibitors to treat African trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis. The consortium said PDE inhibition "can also be used to tackle other parasites." ...