bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.14.096776; this version posted May 15, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY 4.0 International license. 1 Article 2 Discovery of anti-amoebic inhibitors from screening 3 the MMV Pandemic Response Box on Balamuthia 4 mandrillaris, Naegleria fowleri and Acanthamoeba 5 castellanii 6 Christopher A. Rice1,2,Δ,†,*, Emma V. Troth2,3,†, A. Cassiopeia Russell2,3,†, and Dennis E. Kyle1,2,3,* 7 1 Department of Cellular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA. 8 2 Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, Athens, Georgia, USA. 9 3 Department of Infectious Diseases, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA. 10 Δ Current address: Department of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, 11 University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA. 12 † These authors contributed equally to this work. 13 14 *Author correspondence:
[email protected] (D.E.K) and
[email protected] (C.A.R) 15 Received: date; Accepted: date; Published: date 16 Abstract: Pathogenic free-living amoebae, Balamuthia mandrillaris, Naegleria fowleri and several 17 Acanthamoeba species are the etiological agents of severe brain diseases, with case mortality rates 18 >90%. A number of constraints including misdiagnosis and partially effective treatments lead to 19 these high fatality rates. The unmet medical need is for rapidly acting, highly potent new drugs to 20 reduce these alarming mortality rates. Herein, we report the discovery of new drugs as potential 21 anti-amoebic agents.