New Treatment for Chagas' Disease

If clinical trials are successful, a new compound could represent the first new treatment for Chagas' disease in years, and a proof-of-concept breakthrough for inhibiting cysteine proteases in other parasitic organisms.

The compound, called CRA-3316, is being developed by the Institute for OneWorld Health (IOWH, San Francisco, CA, USA) and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) under license from Celera Genomics (Rockville, MD, USA), which discovered the compound. IOWH is a nonprofit company of pharmaceutical scientists whose mission is to develop affordable, essential new drugs for neglected diseases throughout the world, particularly parasitic diseases such as Chagas' disease.

Infection of Chagas' disease is estimated to afflict 16-18 million people in South and Central America, with an annual mortality rate of 50,000, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The parasite that causes the disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, is related to the agent responsible for African sleeping sickness and depends on a cysteine protease, cruzain, to live. Inibition of cruzain by CRA-3316 is lethal to the parasite but does not harm treated patients because humans do not have this enzyme. Standard therapies cannot be used for chronic infections due to toxicity and can only be used for up to four months. Celera believes the new compound may have the potential for eradicating Chagas' disease.

"We appreciate Celera's contribution to this effort,” said Dr. Victoria Hale, CEO and founder of IOWH. "This collaboration should serve as a model for developing promising antiparasitic compounds in the future.”




Related Links:
Institute for OneWorld Health
US National Institutes of Health