State-of-the-Art in the Drug Discovery Pathway for Chagas Disease: A Framework for Drug Development and Target Validation

by Gabaldón-Figueira JC, Martinez-Peinado N, Escabia E, Ros-Lucas A, Chatelain E, Scandale I, Gascon J, Pinazo MJ, Alonso-Padilla J. Research and Reports in Tropical Medicine 2023, 14:1-19. doi: doi.org/10.2147/RRTM.S415273

Summary: Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, is the most important protozoan infection in the Americas, and is a significant global public health concern. Development of new treatments has been slow and difficult, partly because of an incomplete understanding of the mechanisms of pathogenesis of T. cruzi infection and the complex set of interactions between parasite and host in the chronic stage of the disease. In this review, the authors discuss recent breakthroughs in understanding the parasite’s life cycle and the implications for the search for new chemotherapeutics. They present a framework to guide drug discovery efforts against Chagas disease that considers state-of-the-art preclinical models and recently developed tools for the identification and validation of molecular targets.

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