Extraction and characterization of potential new antimalarial compounds from toads' venoms.

Malaria remains a major concern for health organizations around the world. In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported more 216 million cases and 445.000 deaths. With 91 countries affected, it is estimated that more than 800 million people are at risk of infection. The emergence and transmission of resistances to most antimalarial drugs are a real worry. Thus, rendering the need for new therapeutic candidates represents an absolute necessity (1).
In more recent years, animals' venoms and secretions have sparked more and more interest in scientists. In fact, toad venoms constitute a rich source of molecules with many potential therapeutic activities (2).
The objective of this project is to isolate compounds from the toad venom and to test whether they possess a potential antiplasmodial activity.
Different species of toads have been selected. One of our main objectives is to establish a bioguided fractionation process. For that, extraction and purification steps will be optimized or developed by combining various chromatographic techniques and sample preparation protocols. The isolated fractions and compounds will be biologically evaluated in 2 steps: (i) evaluation of their potential antiplasmodial activity on P. falciparum cultures and (ii) assessment of their cytotoxicity on human cell lines. The fractions of interest will be further purified using different chromatographic column chemistries or by 2D-LC technique. The selected compounds' structures will be characterized by mass spectrometry and NMR.
References:
(1) Malaria Report OMS, 2017.
(2) Rodriguez, C., et al., Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2017 (198), 235 - 254.