Research Articles

Activity of anticancer compounds against Trypanosoma cruzi-infected mice

Chagas' disease, which is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, remains essentially incurable. Due principally to a lack of profit incentive, the pharmaceutical industry has had limited interest in developing new antichagasic drugs. Thus, a search for agents that exhibit activity against T. cruzi, although medicaments have been developed for the treatment of other diseases, seems justifiable. Responding to evidence that the principal biochemical differences between mammalian cells and African trypanosomes apply equally to T. cruzi, our evaluations were conducted. Previous work showed the effectiveness of anticancer agents against T. rhodesiense. In the present studies, 76 anticancer compounds were assessed for their ability to suppress the trypomastigotes of T. cruzi- infected mice. Five compounds were found to be active. The most effective was cycloheximide, which was more than six times as effective as the standard, nifurtimox.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				E. Dumonteil, J. Escobedo-Ortegon, N. Reyes-Rodriguez, A. Arjona-Torres, and M. J. Ramirez-Sierra Immunotherapy of Trypanosoma cruzi Infection with DNA Vaccines in Mice Infect. Immun., January 1, 2004; 72(1): 46 - 53. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				K. E. Kinnamon, R. R. Engle, B. T. Poon, W. Y. Ellis, J. W. McCall, and M. T. Dzimianski Anticancer Agents Suppressive for Adult Parasites of Filariasis in Mongolian Jirds Experimental Biology and Medicine, May 1, 2000; 224(1): 45 - 49. [Abstract] [Full Text]