Discovery of high affinity inhibitors of Leishmania donovani N -myristoyltransferase.

-Myristoyltransferase (NMT) is a potential drug target in parasites. Scaffold-hopping from published inhibitors yielded the serendipitous discovery of a chemotype selective for NMT; development led to high affinity inhibitors with excellent ligand efficiency. The binding mode was characterised by crystallography and provides a structural rationale for selectivity.