Abstract:

Chagas' disease is a terrible illness that affects million of people in Central and South America. The causative agent for this disease is the hemoflagellate protozoan Trypanosoma (Schizotrypanum) cruzi which is transmitted to the human body by Reduviid insects, such as Triatoma infectans, popularly known as 'vinchuca', and Rhodnius prolixus. This parasite is also transmitted by transfusion of infected blood. Despite of the progresses made in chemotherapy, new compounds are needed because the trypanocidal drugs presently in use cause considerable side effects on patients and present lack of efficacy and specificity against all stages of the disease. There is no effective treatment available for Chagas' disease in spite of the important advances made in the study of the biochemistry of the microorganism responsible for the mentioned disease. The urgency for more selective and less toxic drugs has led to evaluate chemical therapy based on the knowledge of T. cruzi biochemistry and the mode of action of these compounds. In addition, due to the risk that T. cruzi may be transmitted in blood bank for transfusions, it is very important to have new compounds to kill this parasite in blood to be transfused. At present the drug in use for this purpose suffers from serious limitations concerning its safety. In the present work, the recent advances made in order to control the replication of this parasite are presented.