Drug Discovery for Kinetoplastid Diseases: Future Directions

Srinivasa Rao (1) , Michael Barrett (2) , Glenn Dranoff (3) , Christopher J. Faraday (3) , Claudio R. Gimpelewicz (4) , Asrat Hailu (5) , Catherine L. Jones (1) , John M. Kelly (6) , Janis K. Lazdins-Helds , Pascal Mäser (7) , Jose Mengel (8, 9) , Jeremy C. Mottram (10) , Charles E. Mowbray (11) , David L. Sacks (12) , Phillip Scott (13) , Gerald F Späth (14) , Rick L. Tarleton (15) , Jonathan M. Spector (1) , Thierry T. Diagana (1)

1 NITD - Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases
2 University of Glasgow
3 NIBR - Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research
4 Novartis Pharma AG
5 AAU - Addis Ababa University
6 LSHTM - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
7 Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute [Basel]
8 FIOCRUZ - Fundação Oswaldo Cruz
9 UCP - Universidade Católica de Petrópolis
10 University of York [York, UK]
11 Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative
12 NIAID-NIH - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [Bethesda]
13 Penn State - Pennsylvania State University
14 Institut Pasteur [Paris]
15 University of Georgia [USA]

Kinetoplastid parasites have caused human disease for millennia. Significant achievements have been made toward developing new treatments for leishmaniasis (particularly on the Indian subcontinent) and for human African trypanosomiasis (HAT). Moreover, the sustained decrease in the incidence of HAT has made the prospect of elimination a tantalizing reality. Despite the gains, no new chemical or biological entities to treat kinetoplastid diseases have been registered in more than three decades, and more work is needed to discover safe and effective therapies for patients with Chagas disease and leishmaniasis. Advances in tools for drug discovery and novel insights into the biology of the host-parasite interaction may provide opportunities for accelerated progress. Here, we summarize the output from a gathering of scientists and physicians who met to discuss the current status and future directions in drug discovery for kinetoplastid diseases.

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]

Srinivasa Rao, Michael Barrett, Glenn Dranoff, Christopher J. Faraday, Claudio R. Gimpelewicz, et al.. Drug Discovery for Kinetoplastid Diseases: Future Directions. ACS Infectious Diseases, 2018, ⟨10.1021/acsinfecdis.8b00298⟩. ⟨pasteur-01974311⟩