Practical diagnostic algorithms for Chagas disease: a focus on low resource settings.

Introduction: Chagas disease, caused by parasite , is the most important neglected tropical disease in the Americas. Two drugs are available for treatment, but access to them is challenging, in part due to complex diagnostic algorithms. These are stage-dependent, involve multiple tests, and are ill-adapted to the reality of vast areas where the disease is endemic.

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

Chagas disease is the most important protozoan infection in the Americas, and constitutes a significant public health concern throughout the world. Development of new medications against its etiologic agent, , has been traditionally slow and difficult, lagging in comparison with diseases caused by other kinetoplastid parasites. Among the factors that explain this are the incompletely understood mechanisms of pathogenesis of infection and its complex set of interactions with the host in the chronic stage of the disease.

Computational Prediction of Trypanosoma cruzi Epitopes Toward the Generation of an Epitope-Based Vaccine Against Chagas Disease.

Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, is considered a Neglected Tropical Disease. Limited investment is assigned to its study and control, even though it is one of the most prevalent parasitic infections worldwide. An innovative vaccination strategy involving an epitope-based vaccine that displays multiple immune determinants originating from different antigens could counteract the high biological complexity of the parasite and lead to a wide and protective immune response.

Identification of compounds with activity against within a collection of synthetic nucleoside analogs.

Introduction: Chagas disease is caused by the protozoan parasite , and it is the most important neglected tropical disease in the Americas. Two drugs are available to treat the infection, but their efficacy in the chronic stage of the disease, when most cases are diagnosed, is reduced. Their tolerability is also hindered by common adverse effects, making the development of safer and efficacious alternatives a pressing need.

The Use of AlphaFold for Exploration of Drug Targets in the Parasite .

Chagas disease is a devastating neglected disease caused by the parasite , which affects millions of people worldwide. The two anti-parasitic drugs available, nifurtimox and benznidazole, have a good efficacy against the acute stage of the infection. But this is short, usually asymptomatic and often goes undiagnosed.

Computer-Aided Analysis of West Sub-Saharan Africa Snakes Venom towards the Design of Epitope-Based Poly-Specific Antivenoms.

Snakebite envenomation is a neglected tropical disease that causes over 100,000 deaths each year. The only effective treatment consists of antivenoms derived from animal sera, but these have been deemed with highly variable potency and are usually inaccessible and too costly for victims. The production of antivenoms by venom-independent techniques, such as the immunization with multi-epitope constructs, could circumvent those drawbacks.

Compounds targeting GPI biosynthesis or -glycosylation are active against .

The emergence of resistance to first-line antimalarials, including artemisinin, the last effective malaria therapy in some regions, stresses the urgent need to develop new effective treatments against this disease. The identification and validation of metabolic pathways that could be targeted for drug development may strongly contribute to accelerate this process. In this study, we use fully characterized specific inhibitors targeting glycan biosynthetic pathways as research tools to analyze their effects on the growth of the malaria parasite and to validate these metabolic routes as feasible chemotherapeutic targets.

Novel Purine Chemotypes with Activity against and .

Malaria and Chagas disease, caused by spp. and parasites, remain important global health problems. Available treatments for those diseases present several limitations, such as lack of efficacy, toxic side effects, and drug resistance.

An Overview of Current Uses and Future Opportunities for Computer-Assisted Design of Vaccines for Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Neglected tropical diseases are infectious diseases that impose high morbidity and mortality rates over 1.5 billion people worldwide. Originally restricted to tropical and subtropical regions, changing climate conditions have increased their potential to emerge elsewhere.

Computational Analysis of African Swine Fever Virus Protein Space for the Design of an Epitope-Based Vaccine Ensemble.

African swine fever virus is the etiological agent of African swine fever, a transmissible severe hemorrhagic disease that affects pigs, causing massive economic losses. There is neither a treatment nor a vaccine available, and the only method to control its spread is by extensive culling of pigs. So far, classical vaccine development approaches have not yielded sufficiently good results in terms of concomitant safety and efficacy.