RESEARCH ARTICLE Prolyl Oligopeptidase from the Blood Fluke Schistosoma mansoni: From Functional Analysis to Anti-schistosomal Inhibitors Pavla Fajtová1,2,Saša Štefanić3, Martin Hradilek1, Jan Dvořák4,5,Jiří Vondrášek1, Adéla Jílková1, Lenka Ulrychová1,6, James H. McKerrow7¤, Conor R. Caffrey7, Michael Mareš1, Martin Horn1* 1 Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic, 2 First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, 3 Institute of Parasitology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, 4 Institute of Molecular Genetics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic, 5 Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, 6 Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, 7 Center for Innovation and Discovery in Parasitic Diseases, Department of Pathology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America ¤ Current Address: Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San OPEN ACCESS Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America *
[email protected] Citation: Fajtová P, Štefanić S, Hradilek M, Dvořák J, Vondrášek J, Jílková A, et al. (2015) Prolyl Oligopeptidase from the Blood Fluke Schistosoma mansoni: From Functional Analysis to Anti- Abstract schistosomal Inhibitors. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 9(6): e0003827. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0003827 Editor: Rodrigo Correa-Oliveira, René Rachou Research Center, BRAZIL Background Received: January 8, 2015 Blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma cause schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease that in- Accepted: May 12, 2015 fects over 240 million people worldwide, and for which there is a need to identify new targets Published: June 3, 2015 for chemotherapeutic interventions.