Drug Target Insights

Babesia microti is an emerging zoonotic protozoan organism that causes “malaria-like” symptoms that can be fatal in immunocompromised people. Owing to lack of specific therapeutic regiment against the disease, we cloned and characterized B. microti lactate dehydrogenase (BmLDH) as a potential molecular drug receptor. The in vitro kinetic properties of BmLDH enzyme was evaluated using nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) as a co-factor and lactate as a substrate. Inhibitory assay was also done using gossypol as BmLDH inhibitor to determine the inhibitory concentration 50 (IC50). The result showed that the 0.99 kbp BmLDH gene codes for a barely soluble 36 kDa protein (332 amino acids) localized in both the cytoplasm and nucleus of the parasite. In vitro enzyme kinetic studies further revealed that BmLDH is an active enzyme with a high catalytic efficiency at optimal pH of 10.2. The Km values of NAD+ and lactate were 8.7 ± 0.57 mM and 99.9 ± 22.33 mM, respectively. The IC50 value for gossypol was 0.345 µM, while at 2.5 µM, gossypol caused 100% inhibition of BmLDH catalytic activity. These findings, therefore, provide initial evidence that BmLDH could be a potential drug target, although further in vivo studies are needed to validate the practical application of lactate dehydrogenase inhibitors against B. microti infection.