RESUMO
Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), is an increasing threat to global health. Available medicines were introduced over 40 years ago, have undesirable side effects, and give equivocal results of cure in the chronic stage of the disease. We report the development of two compounds, 6 and (S)-7, with PCR-confirmed curative activity in a mouse model of established T. cruzi infection after once daily oral dosing for 20 days at 20 mg/kg 6 and 10 mg/kg (S)-7. Compounds 6 and (S)-7 have potent in vitro activity, are noncytotoxic, show no adverse effects in vivo following repeat dosing, are prepared by a short synthetic route, and have druglike properties suitable for preclinical development.
Assuntos
Doença de Chagas/tratamento farmacológico , Pirimidinas/farmacologia , Tripanossomicidas/farmacologia , Trypanosoma cruzi/efeitos dos fármacos , Animais , Doença de Chagas/parasitologia , Modelos Animais de Doenças , Relação Dose-Resposta a Droga , Masculino , Camundongos , Estrutura Molecular , Testes de Sensibilidade Parasitária , Pirimidinas/administração & dosagem , Pirimidinas/química , Relação Estrutura-Atividade , Tripanossomicidas/administração & dosagem , Tripanossomicidas/químicaRESUMO
We report the discovery of nontoxic fungicide fenarimol (1) as an inhibitor of Trypanosoma cruzi ( T. cruzi ), the causative agent of Chagas disease, and the results of structure-activity investigations leading to potent analogues with low nM IC(50)s in a T. cruzi whole cell in vitro assay. Lead compounds suppressed blood parasitemia to virtually undetectable levels after once daily oral dosing in mouse models of T. cruzi infection. Compounds are chemically tractable, allowing rapid optimization of target biological activity and drug characteristics. Chemical and biological studies undertaken in the development of the fenarimol series toward the goal of delivering a new drug candidate for Chagas disease are reported.