Drug Discovery and Development for Kinetoplastid Diseases

We review the disease, biology and biochemistry of kinetoplastids, as well as the new drugs and drug candidates that have entered the clinic in the last decade. We also describe examples of the pre-clinical exploration of small molecules against various protein targets, (e.g., cysteine proteases, the proteasome and tubulin), as well as cutting-edge molecular and computational strategies, and technologies being brought to bear to discover and develop new anti-trypanosomal drugs. For comprehensive descriptions of the disease, biology and drug therapies prior to 2011, the reader is encouraged to review the chapter by P. M. Woster that appeared in 2010 in the seventh edition of Burger’s Medicinal Chemistry, Drug Discovery, and Development, with the title Antiprotozoal/Antiparasitic Agents.