CHAGAS DISEASE An Overview of Recent Advances in the Search for Synthetic Organic Compounds with Trypanocidal Activity

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Abstract

Chagas disease was discovered over 100 years ago, and continues to be a major public health problem, with 16 to 18 million people infected with Trypanososma cruzi, its causative agent, and 21,000 deaths associated with this disease every year. Nifurtimox (Nfx) and benznidazole (Bnz) are even today the only clinically available drugs for the chemotherapy of Chagas disease, but they show significant side effects, involve long-term treatment and there are other problems, like emergence of resistant strains. This chapter aims to highlight recent contributions from the organic synthesis field on developing new compounds with trypanocidal activity, including discussion on important structural features and molecular targets.

Keywords: Chagas disease, antichagasic activity, organic synthesis, trypanocidal activity.

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