Targeting Plasmodium falciparum protein kinases with adenosine analogue–oligoarginine conjugates

•Adenosine–oligoarginine conjugates (ARCs) were targeted to kinome of P. falciparum.•ARCs demonstrated high affinity towards P. falciparum cGMP-dependent protein kinase.•ARCs decreased remarkably the general phosphorylation levels in isolated parasites.•ARCs represent novel bisubstrate scaffolds for biochemical studies in P. falciparum.

During the last decade, a vast number of inhibitors, ligands and fluorescent probes have evolved for mammalian protein kinases; however, the suitability of these compounds for studies of evolutionarily divergent eukaryotes has mostly been left beyond the scope of research. Here, we examined whether adenosine analogue–oligoarginine conjugates that had been extensively characterized as efficient inhibitors of the human protein kinases are applicable for targeting Plasmodium protein kinases. We demonstrated that ARCs were not only able to bind to and inhibit a representative member of Plasmodium falciparum kinome (cGMP-dependent protein kinase) in biochemical assay, but also affected the general phosphorylation levels in parasites released from the infected red blood cells upon saponin treatment. These findings urge advantaging of already existing biochemical tools, whose initially generic, but intrinsically “tunable” selectivity profiles could be used for dissection of signaling pathways outside the initially defined group of biological targets.

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