molecules Review Prenylquinones in Human Parasitic Protozoa: Biosynthesis, Physiological Functions, and Potential as Chemotherapeutic Targets 1, 1, 1, 1,2 Ignasi B. Verdaguer y, Camila A. Zafra y, Marcell Crispim y, Rodrigo A.C. Sussmann , Emília A. Kimura 1 and Alejandro M. Katzin 1,* 1 Department of Parasitology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508000, Brazil;
[email protected] (I.B.V.);
[email protected] (C.A.Z.);
[email protected] (M.C.);
[email protected] (R.A.C.S.);
[email protected] (E.A.K.) 2 Centro de Formação em Ciências Ambientais, Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia, Porto Seguro 45810-000 Bahia, Brazil * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +55-11-3091-7330; Fax: +5511-3091-7417 These authors contributed equally to this work. y Received: 5 August 2019; Accepted: 1 October 2019; Published: 16 October 2019 Abstract: Human parasitic protozoa cause a large number of diseases worldwide and, for some of these diseases, there are no effective treatments to date, and drug resistance has been observed. For these reasons, the discovery of new etiological treatments is necessary. In this sense, parasitic metabolic pathways that are absent in vertebrate hosts would be interesting research candidates for the identification of new drug targets. Most likely due to the protozoa variability, uncertain phylogenetic origin, endosymbiotic events, and evolutionary pressure for adaptation to adverse environments, a surprising variety of prenylquinones can be found within these organisms. These compounds are involved in essential metabolic reactions in organisms, for example, prevention of lipoperoxidation, participation in the mitochondrial respiratory chain or as enzymatic cofactors.