Identification of enzymes that are required for Rhodoquinone-dependent metabolism as targets for new species-specific inhibitors

Soil transmitted helminths (STHs) are major human pathogens that infect over a billion people. Resistance to current anthelmintics is rising and new drugs are needed. Here we combine multiple approaches to find druggable targets that are essential for RQ-dependent metabolism, an unusual form of anaerobic metabolism which STHs need to survive in their host. We identified 25 genes predicted to act in RQ-dependent metabolism from sensing hypoxia to RQ synthesis -- this includes components of the kynurenine pathway we previously showed to be essential for RQ synthesis (Del Borrello et al., 2019). We found 9 genes to be required -- since all have host orthologues, we used comparative genomics and structural modeling to identify those with helminth-specific active sites and found 4 such targets. These 4 high confidence targets open up the possibility of in silico screens to identify STH-specific inhibitors of these enzymes as new anthelmintics.