Glucose Metabolism in the Pathogenic Free-living Amoebae: Tempting Targets for Treatment Development

Pathogenic free-living amoebae (pFLA) are single-celled eukaryotes responsible for causing intractable infections with high morbidity and mortality in humans and animals. Current therapeutic approaches include cocktails of antibiotic, antifungal, and antimicrobial compounds. Unfortunately, the efficacy of these can be limited, driving the need for the discovery of new treatments. Pan anti-amebic agents would be ideal; however, identifying these agents has been a challenge, likely due to the limited evolutionary relatedness of the different pFLA. Here, we discuss the potential of targeting amoebae glucose metabolic pathways as the differences between pFLA and humans suggest specific inhibitors could be developed as leads for new therapeutics.