Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 8, Issue 4, 2002

The African trypanosome, Trypanosoma brucei exhibits a complex, digenetic life cycle that alternates between the tsetse fly vector and the mammalian host. The life cycle is characterised by a complex series of cell type differentiations and variations in metabolism. In addition the trypanosome exhibits a particular cell biology that has become adapted for its role as a parasite. This article places some of these areas Read More

Human African trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness is resurgent [1,2]. The disease is caused by subspecies of the parasitic haemoflagellate, Trypanosoma brucei. Infection starts with the bite of an infected tsetse fly (Glossina spp.). Parasites move from the site of infection to the draining lymphatic vessels and blood stream. The parasites proliferate within the bloodstream and later invade other tissues including the central Read More

The paper reviews basic aspects of the biology of Trypanosoma cruzi emphasizing the following topics: (a) developmental stages of the life cycle in the vertebrate and invertebrate hosts (b) the cytoskeleton of the protozoan, especially the sub-pellicular microtubules (c) the flagellum, emphasizing its attachment to the protozoan body through specialized junctions (d) the kinetoplast-mitochondrion complex, describing it Read More

In this article we review the current status of chemotherapeutic approaches for the specific treatment of Chagas disease or American Trypanosomiasis, as well as new rational approaches being developed as a consequence on the increased understanding of the biochemistry and physiology of its causative agent, the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Currently available drugs (nitrofurans and nitroimidazoles), Read More

Parasitic protozoa of the genus Leishmania infect mammalian mononuclear phagocytic cells causing a potentially fatal disease with a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations. The drugs of choice used in the leishmaniasis therapy are significantly toxic, expensive and faced with a growing frequency of refractory infections. Thus the search for new leishmanicidal compounds is urgently required. In order to perform Read More

Leishmaniasis, in its variety of visceral (VL), cutaneous (CL) and mucocutaneous (MCL) forms, directly affects about 2 million people per annum, with approximately 350 million individuals at risk worldwide. During the last 10 years there have been extensive epidemics of the visceral form of the disease, which is also emerging as an important opportunistic infection in immunocompromised patients, especially those co-infecte Read More