Improved herbicide discovery using physico-chemical rules refined by antimalarial library screening.

Herbicides have physico-chemical properties not unlike orally-delivered human drugs, but are known to diverge in their limits for proton donors, partition coefficients and molecular weight. To further refine rules specific for herbicides, we exploited the close evolutionary relationship between Plasmodium falciparum and plants by screening the entire Malaria Box, a chemical library of novel chemical scaffolds with activity against the blood stage of P. falciparum. Initial screening against Arabidopsis thaliana on agar media and subsequently on soil demonstrated the crucial nature of log P and formal charge are to active molecules. Using this information, a weighted scoring system was applied to a large chemical library of liver-stage effective antimalarial leads, and of the six top-scoring compounds, one had potency comparable to that of commercial herbicides. This novel compound, MMV1206386, has no close structural analogues among commercial herbicides. Physiological profiling suggested that MMV1206386 has a new mode of action and overall demonstrates how weighted rules can help during herbicide discovery programs.

Targeting plant DIHYDROFOLATE REDUCTASE with antifolates and mechanisms for genetic resistance.

The folate biosynthetic pathway and its key enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is a popular target for drug development due to its essential role in the synthesis of DNA precursors and some amino acids. Despite its importance, little is known about plant DHFRs, which, like the enzymes from the malarial parasite Plasmodium, are bifunctional, possessing DHFR and thymidylate synthase (TS) domains. Here using genetic knockout lines we confirmed that either DHFR-TS1 or DHFR-TS2 (but not DHFR-TS3) was essential for seed development. Screening mutated Arabidopsis thaliana seeds for resistance to antimalarial DHFR-inhibitor drugs pyrimethamine and cycloguanil identified causal lesions in DHFR-TS1 and DHFR-TS2, respectively, near the predicted substrate-binding site. The different drug resistance profiles for the plants, enabled by the G137D mutation in DHFR-TS1 and the A71V mutation in DHFR-TS2, were consistent with biochemical studies using recombinant proteins and could be explained by structural models. These findings provide a great improvement in our understanding of plant DHFR-TS and suggest how plant-specific inhibitors might be developed, as DHFR is not currently targeted by commercial herbicides.

Developing ciprofloxacin analogues against plant DNA gyrase: a novel herbicide mode of action.

Ciprofloxacin has been shown to exhibit potent herbicidal activity through action against plant DNA gyrase, presenting a novel mode of action. Analogues of ciprofloxacin have been prepared with increased herbicidal activity and diminished antibacterial activity, compared to ciprofloxacin, as demonstrated using model systems.

A herbicide structure-activity analysis of the antimalarial lead compound MMV007978 against Arabidopsis thaliana.

BACKGROUND: To fight herbicide-resistant weeds, new herbicides are needed; particularly ones with new modes of action. Building on the revelation that many antimalarial drugs are herbicidal, here we focus on the Medicines for Malaria Venture antimalarial lead compound MMV007978 that has herbicidal activity against the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. RESULTS: Twenty-two variations of the lead compound thiophenyl motif revealed that change was tolerated provided ring size and charge were retained. MMV007978 was active against select monocot and dicot weeds, and physiological profiling indicated that its mode of action is related to germination and cell division. Of interest is the fact that the compound has a profile that is currently not found among known herbicides. CONCLUSION: We demonstrate that the antimalarial compound MMV007978 is also herbicidal and that exploiting lead compounds that are often understudied could lead to the identification of interesting herbicidal scaffolds. Further structural investigation of MMV007978 could provide improved herbicidal chemistries with a potential new mode of action. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Exploiting the Evolutionary Relationship between Malarial Parasites and Plants To Develop New Herbicides.

Herbicide resistance is driving a need to develop new herbicides. The evolutionary relationship between apicomplexan parasites, such as those causing malaria, and plants is close enough that many antimalarial drugs are herbicidal and so represent novel scaffolds for herbicide development. Using a compound library from the Medicines for Malaria Venture, the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, and a physicochemical database of known herbicides, a compound was discovered that showed post-emergence herbicidal activity equal to commercial herbicides. Using structure-activity analysis, important points for its potency were found. The compound was also tested and found to be active against common crop weeds. Physiological profiling suggested the compound was a photosystem II inhibitor, representing a new scaffold for herbicide development. Overall this approach demonstrates the viability of using antimalarial compounds as lead compounds for the development of much needed new herbicides.

Herbicidal properties of antimalarial drugs.

The evolutionary relationship between plants and the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum is well established and underscored by the P. falciparum apicoplast, an essential chloroplast-like organelle. As a result of this relationship, studies have demonstrated that herbicides active against plants are also active against P. falciparum and thus could act as antimalarial drug leads. Here we show the converse is also true; many antimalarial compounds developed for human use are highly herbicidal. We found that human antimalarial drugs (e.g. sulfadiazine, sulfadoxine, pyrimethamine, cycloguanil) were lethal to the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana at similar concentrations to market herbicides glufosinate and glyphosate. Furthermore, the physicochemical properties of these herbicidal antimalarial compounds were similar to commercially used herbicides. The implications of this finding that many antimalarial compounds are herbicidal proffers two novel applications: (i) using the genetically tractable A. thaliana to reveal mode-of-action for understudied antimalarial drugs, and (ii) co-opting antimalarial compounds as a new source for much needed herbicide lead molecules.

An interactive database to explore herbicide physicochemical properties.

Herbicides are an essential tool not only in weed management, but also in conservation tillage approaches to cropping. The first commercial herbicides were released in the 1940s and hundreds more since then, although genetic resistance to them is an issue. Here, we review the experimental and estimated physicochemical properties of 334 successful herbicidal compounds and make available a dynamic electronic database containing detailed analyses of the main chemical properties for herbicides and which adopts the Simplified Molecular-Input Line-Entry System (SMILES) for describing the structure of chemical molecules. This fully available resource allows for the rapid comparison of potential new herbicidal compounds to the chemical properties of known herbicides.