In vitro experimentation of newly synthesized compounds against Trypanosoma cruzi

Chagas disease is a chronic, systemic and parasitic disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. It is endemic in 21 American countries and, according to World Health Organisation, 8 million people are infected, causing 12,000 deaths and 56,000 new cases each year. Chagas disease is naturally transmited by haematophagous insects of the subfamily Triatominae, but there are other ways of transmission such as blood transfusions, organ transplantation, congenital transmission and food contamination.

There is currently no vaccine or effective treatment for the disease. The current treatment is based on chemotherapy with two obsolete nitroheterocyclic compounds: Benznidazole and Nifurtimox. These drugs are not effective in the chronic phase, where most cases are diagnosed, and they are highly toxic. In the present work, five families of newly synthesised compounds have been evaluated as potential anti-T. cruzi candidates with better properties than the current ones.

The biological experimentation is divided into two phases: 1) in vitro screening phase where the activity of the compounds against different morphological forms of the parasite is evaluated; and 2) mode of action determination phase where selected compounds are subjected to study in order to know their trypanocidal mechanism.

To conclude, the selected compounds are potential candidates for in vivo assays and could be the starting point for the development of new antichagas agents.