Antiprotozoal agents: How have they changed over a decade?

Abstract

Neglected tropical diseases are a diverse group of communicable diseases that are endemic in low‐ or low‐to‐middle‐income countries located in tropical and subtropical zones. The number and availability of drugs for treating these diseases are low, the administration route is inconvenient in some cases, and most of them have safety, efficacy, or adverse/toxic reaction issues. The need for developing new drugs to deal with these issues is clear, but one of the most drastic consequences of this negligence is the lack of interest in the research and development of new therapeutic options among major pharmaceutical companies. Positive changes have been achieved over the last few years, although the overall situation remains alarming. After more than one decade since the original work reviewing antiprotozoal agents came to light, now it is time to question ourselves: How has the scenario for the treatment of protozoal diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis, human African trypanosomiasis, and American trypanosomiasis changed? This review covers the last decade in terms of the drugs currently available for the treatment of these diseases as well as the clinical candidates being currently investigated.

Acrylonitrile derivatives: In vitro activity and mechanism of cell death induction against Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania amazonensis

“…Reference treatments for Leishmania include pentavalent antimonials, amphotericin B, miltefosine and paramomycin ( Fernandes et al, 2022 ). For Chagas disease, the treatment is the same as that discovered 50 years ago, benznidazole and nifurtimox ( Pérez-Molina et al, 2021 ).…”

Global Health Priority Box: Discovering Flucofuron as a Promising Antikinetoplastid Compound

“…Standard treatments for Chagas disease include benznidazole and nifurtimox [5]. On the other hand, for leishmaniasis, miltefosine, pentavalent antimonials, amphotericin B, and paramomycin are the most used treatments [6]. Despite the therapeutic efforts of the last 50 years, current treatments for these diseases have important limitations, such as toxicity, the development of resistance, and prolonged treatment.…”

Structure‐based design, optimization of lead, synthesis, and biological evaluation of compounds active against Trypanosoma cruzi

“…The search for alternative drugs for T. cruzi , especially products that contain nitrogen heterocycles, has been the object of numerous studies (Cardona‐G et al, 2018; De Clercq, 2013a; Fernandes et al, 2022; Martinez‐Peinado et al, 2021; Poletto et al, 2021). Diazole compounds, such as pyrimidines, constitute the skeletal structure of some drugs used in anticancer and antiviral therapies (De Clercq, 2013b; Falcão et al, 2006; Kumar & Narasimhan, 2018; Patel et al, 2015; Zarenezhad et al, 2021).…”