The use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which are nanometric materials, in pathogen detection, protection of environments, food safety, and in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, as efficient drug delivery systems, is relevant for the improvement and advancement of pharmacological profiles of many molecules employed in therapeutics and in tissue bioengineering. It has contributed to the advancement of science due to the development of new tools and devices in the field of medicine. CNTs have versatile mechanical, physical, and chemical properties, in addition to their great potential for association with other materials to contribute to applications in different fields of medicine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChagas disease (CD) is a parasitic disease endemic in several developing countries. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 6-8 million people worldwide are inflicted by CD. The scarcity of new drugs, mainly for the chronic phase, is the main reason for treatment limitation in CD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTuberculosis (TB) is a major global cause of mortality, primarily stemming from latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). Failure to fully treat LTBI can result in drug-resistant forms of TB. Therefore, it is essential to develop novel drugs with unique mechanisms of action to combat TB effectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeglected diseases, primarily found in tropical regions of the world, present a significant challenge for impoverished populations. Currently, there are 20 diseases considered neglected, which greatly impact the health of affected populations and result in difficult-to-control social and economic consequences. Unfortunately, for the majority of these diseases, there are few or no drugs available for patient treatment, and the few drugs that do exist often lack adequate safety and efficacy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe macrophage mannose receptor (RMM) is a crucial component of the immune system involved in immune responses, inflammation resolution, and tissue remodeling. When RMM is activated by a specific ligand, it undergoes internalization, forming an endosome that matures into a lysosome. Within the lysosome, structural changes in RMM facilitate the dissociation of ligands for further processing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParasitic infections are diseases transmitted by parasites usually found in contaminated food, water, or insect bites. Generally classified as neglected tropical diseases, malaria and trypanosomiases are some of the most prominent parasitic diseases that cause significant loss of life annually. In 2020, an estimated 241 million malaria cases were reported, with 627,000 deaths worldwide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are highly prevalent communicable diseases in tropical and subtropical countries, generally not economically attractive for drug development and related to poverty. In Brazil, more specifically, socioeconomic inequalities and health indicators are strongly influenced by skin color, race, and ethnicity, due to the historical process of slavery. In this context, it is important to understand the concept of systemic racism: a form of indirect racial discrimination present in many institutions, which determines the process of illness and death of the black population, the ethnic group most affected by these diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChagas disease (CD) is a neglected protozoan infection caused by , which affects about 7 million people worldwide. There are two available drugs in therapeutics, however, they lack effectiveness for the chronic stage-characterized mainly by cardiac (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are infectious diseases that mostly affect people living in tropical and subtropical regions, especially in impoverished areas. Ubiquitously found in plants, flavonoids are a group of compounds that have been reported to exhibit a wide range of biological activities against parasites (Leishmania sp., Trypanosoma cruzi, Trypanosoma brucei, Brugia malayi, etc.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHydroxymethylation is a simple chemical reaction, in which the introduction of the hydroxymethyl group can lead to physical-chemical property changes and offer several therapeutic advantages, contributing to the improved biological activity of drugs. There are many examples in the literature of the pharmaceutical, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacodynamic benefits, which the hydroxymethyl group can confer to drugs, prodrugs, drug metabolites, and other therapeutic compounds. It is worth noting that this group can enhance the drug's interaction with the active site, and it can be employed as an intermediary in synthesizing other therapeutic agents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Tuberculosis (TB) has been a challenging disease worldwide, especially for the neglected poor populations. Presently, there are approximately 2 billion people infected with TB worldwide and 10 million people in the world fell ill with active TB, leading to 1.5 million deaths.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHydroxymethylnitrofurazone (NFOH) is a therapeutic candidate for Chagas disease (CD). It has negligible hepatotoxicity in a murine model compared to the front-line drug benznidazole (BZN). Here, using strains that express bioluminescent and/or fluorescent reporter proteins, we further investigated the in vitro and in vivo activity of NFOH to define whether the compound is trypanocidal or trypanostatic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Chagas disease is a potentially life-threatening illness caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and is transmitted to humans through the excreta of infected blood-sucking triatomine bugs. According to the World Health Organization, 6 to 7 million people are infected with T. cruzi worldwide, mainly in Latin America, with more than 10000 deaths annually.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMalaria and tuberculosis are no longer considered to be neglected diseases by the World Health Organization. However, both are huge challenges and public health problems in the world, which affect poor people, today referred to as neglected populations. In addition, malaria and tuberculosis present the same difficulties regarding the treatment, such as toxicity and the microbial resistance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSelf-immolative drug delivery system is one of the delivery systems, which have drawn attention, in recent research, highlighting the improvement they generate in drug selectivity and efficacy. Self-immolative linkers, or spacers, are covalent groups, which have the role of cleavaging two bonds between a protector group and a drug, in the case of drug delivery systems, after a stimuli.The cascade of reactions allows to control the release of the drug.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChagas disease, leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis are neglected diseases (NDs) and are a considerable global challenge. Despite the huge number of people infected, NDs do not create interest from pharmaceutical companies because the associated revenue is generally low. Most of the research on these diseases has been conducted in academic institutions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEndemic in 149 tropical and subtropical countries, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) affect more than 1 billion people annually with over 500,000 deaths. Among the NTDs, some of the most severe consist of leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, and dengue. The impact of the combined NTDs closely rivals that of malaria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWater solubility has been identified as a critical parameter and the main responsible by affecting poor performance of oral drug delivery. Poorly soluble drugs can originate unsatisfactory ADME properties leading to low oral bioavailability, insufficient chemical stability, low half-life, fast pre-systemic metabolism and difficulties in formulation. In this context, the prodrug design is an alternative in order to improve physicochemical, biopharmaceutical and pharmacokinetic properties such as permeability, solubility, bioavailability, chemical stability and metabolism of molecules presenting poor drug-like properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExpert Opin Drug Discov
September 2017
There is a great interest in Nitric oxide (NO) within medicinal chemistry since it's involved in human signaling pathways. Prodrugs or hybrid compounds containing NO-donor scaffolds linked to an active compound are valuable, due to their potential for modulating many pathological conditions due to NO's biological properties when released in addition to the native drug. Compounds that selectively inhibit nitric oxide synthase isoforms (NOS) can also increase therapeutic capacity, particularly in the treatment of chronic diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDextran-coated poly (n-butyl cyanoacrylate) nanoparticles (PBCA-NPs) were prepared and were evaluated for enhanced delivery of a promising anti-Leishmania drug candidate, hydroxymethylnitrofurazone (NFOH), to phagocytic cells. Currently available chemotherapy for leishmaniasis, such as pentavalent antimonials, presents low safety and efficacy. Furthermore, widespread drug resistance in leishmaniasis is rapidly emerging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe development of resistance to antibiotics by microorganisms is a major problem for the treatment of bacterial infections worldwide, and therefore, it is imperative to study new scaffolds that are potentially useful in the development of new antibiotics. In this regard, we propose the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of hybrid sulfonylhydrazone bioisosters/furoxans with potential antibacterial (Escherichia coli) activity. The most active compound of the series, (E)-3-methyl-4-((2-tosylhydrazono)methyl)-1,2,5-oxadiazole 2-oxide, with a MIC=0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, is a parasitosis that predominates in Latin America. It is estimated that 25 million people are under the risk of infection and, in 2008, more than 10 thousand deaths were registered. The only two drugs available in the therapeutics, nifurtimox and benznidazole, showed to be more effective in the acute phase of the disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeglected tropical diseases (NTD) are a group of 17 diseases transmitted by virus, protozoa, helminthes and bacteria. These illnesses are responsible for millions of deaths per year, affecting mainly the poorest populations in the world. The therapeutic drugs available are obsolete, toxic, have questionable efficacy and there are reports of resistance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Med Chem
July 2014
Hybrid bioisoster derivatives from N-acylhydrazones and furoxan groups were designed with the objective of obtaining at least a dual mechanism of action: cruzain inhibition and nitric oxide (NO) releasing activity. Fifteen designed compounds were synthesized varying the substitution in N-acylhydrazone and in furoxan group as well. They had its anti-Trypanosoma cruzi activity in amastigotes forms, NO releasing potential and inhibitory cruzain activity evaluated.
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