A single class of drugs could be used to treat three tropical diseases, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis and sleeping sickness, according to the results of a study published in the medical journal Nature. This compound, currently called GNF6702, does not damage human cells. These conclusions were obtained on mice.
Researchers at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) in San Diego (USA) have identified a compound that could eradicate the parasites responsible for three tropical diseases : Chagas disease, leishmaniasis and sleeping sickness.
These diseases affect millions of people in Latin America, Asia and Africa, but there are few effective treatments available. They cause more than 50,000 deaths a year, but research receives relatively little funding for drug development.
A single compound to treat three tropical diseases
Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, and sleeping sickness have different symptoms, but are all caused by parasites called “kinetoplastids.” Which led scientists to think that it might be possible to find a single product that could eradicate all three pathologies.
“We found that these parasites harbor a common weakness, and we hope to exploit this weakness to discover and develop a single class of drugs for the three diseases,” explained Frantisek Supek, author of the study.
Tested on mice, the compound GNF6702 does not seem to cause any adverse effects. Toxicity testing and clinical trials are needed to establish its effectiveness in humans.
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