VNI cures acute and chronic experimental Chagas disease.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 23372180.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1093/infdis/jit042 and PMC identifier 3698996.
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Abstract
Chagas disease is a deadly infection caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Afflicting approximately 8 million people in Latin America, Chagas disease is now becoming a serious global health problem proliferating beyond the traditional geographical borders, mainly because of human and vector migration. Because the disease is endemic in low-resource areas, industrial drug development has been lethargic. The chronic form remains incurable, there are no vaccines, and 2 existing drugs for the acute form are toxic and have low efficacy. Here we report the efficacy of a small molecule, VNI, including evidence of its effectiveness against chronic Chagas disease. VNI is a potent experimental inhibitor of T. cruzi sterol 14α-demethylase. Nontoxic and highly selective, VNI displays promising pharmacokinetics and administered orally to mice at 25 mg/kg for 30 days cures, with 100% cure rate and 100% survival, the acute and chronic T. cruzi infection.
Medical subject headings
- Chagas Disease
- Enzyme Inhibitors
- Imidazoles
- Oxadiazoles