Fatty acid binding proteins (FABPs) are small intracellular proteins that reversibly bind fatty acids and other hydrophobic ligands. In cestodes, due to their inability to synthesise fatty acids and cholesterol de novo, FABPs, together with other lipid binding proteins, have been proposed as essential, involved in the trafficking and delivery of such lipophilic metabolites. Pharmacological agents that modify specific parasite FABP function may provide control of lipid signalling pathways, inflammatory responses and metabolic regulation that could be of crucial importance for the parasite development and survival. Echinococcus multilocularis and Echinococcus granulosus are, respectively, the causative agents of alveolar and cystic echinococcosis (or hydatidosis). These diseases are included in the World Health Organization’s list of priority neglected tropical diseases. Here, we explore the potential of FABPs from cestodes as drug targets. To this end, we have applied a target repurposing approach to identify novel inhibitors of Echinococcus spp. FABPs. An ensemble of computational models was developed and applied in a virtual screening campaign of DrugBank library. 21 hits belonging to the applicability domain of the ensemble models were identified, and 3 of the hits were assayed against purified E. multilocularis FABP, experimentally confirming the model’s predictions. Noteworthy, this is to our best knowledge the first report on isolation and purification of such four FABP, for which initial structural and functional characterization is reported here.

脂肪酸结合蛋白 (FABP) 是小的细胞内蛋白质，可以可逆地结合脂肪酸和其他疏水性配体。在绦虫中，由于它们无法从头合成脂肪酸和胆固醇，FABP 与其他脂质结合蛋白被认为是必不可少的，参与此类亲脂代谢物的运输和递送。修饰特定寄生虫 FABP 功能的药理学试剂可以控制脂质信号通路、炎症反应和代谢调节，这对寄生虫的发育和生存至关重要。多房棘球绦虫和细粒棘球绦虫分别是肺泡和囊性棘球蚴病（或包虫病）的病原体。这些疾病被列入世界卫生组织优先被忽视的热带疾病清单。在这里，我们探索了来自绦虫的 FABP 作为药物靶点的潜力。为此，我们应用了目标再利用方法来鉴定棘球绦虫的新型抑制剂。FABP。开发了一组计算模型并将其应用于 DrugBank 图书馆的虚拟筛选活动。鉴定了属于集合模型适用性域的 21 个命中，并且针对纯化的多房大肠杆菌检测了其中的 3 个命中FABP，实验证实了模型的预测。值得注意的是，据我们所知，这是关于分离和纯化这四种 FABP 的第一份报告，此处报告了其初始结构和功能表征。