Title:Chagas Disease Chemotherapy: What Do We Know So Far?
Volume: 27
Issue: 38
Author(s): Aline A. Zuma*Wanderley de Souza
Affiliation:
- Laboratorio de Ultraestrutura Celular Hertha Meyer, Instituto de Biofisica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; Av. Carlos Chagas Filho, 373, Centro de Ciencias da Saude, Cidade Universitaria, Ilha do Fundao, 21491-590, Rio de Janeiro, RJ,Brazil
Keywords:
Benznidazole, chagas disease, chemotherapy, drug design, synthesis, Trypanosoma cruzi.
Abstract: Chagas disease is a Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD), and although it is endemic in Latin America,
it affects around 6-7 million people worldwide. The treatment of Chagas disease is based on benznidazole and
nifurtimox, which are the only available drugs. However, they are not effective during the chronic phase and
cause several side effects. Furthermore, BZ promotes cure in 80% of the patients in the acute phase, but the
cure rate drops to 20% in adults in the chronic phase of the disease. In this review, we present several studies
published in the last six years, which describe the antiparasitic potential of distinct drugs, from the synthesis of
new compounds, aiming to target the parasite, as well as the repositioning and the combination of drugs. We
highlight several compounds that have shown equivalency or superiority to BZ, which means that they should
be further studied, either in vitro or in vivo. Furthermore, we highlight the differences in the effects of BZ on
the same strain of T. cruzi, which might be related to methodological differences, such as parasite and cell ratios,
host cell type, and the time of adding the drug. In addition, we discussed the wide variety of strains and also
the cell types used as host cells, making it difficult to compare the trypanocidal effect of the compounds.