Drugs for the Etiologic Treatment of Chagas Disease: Myths and Truths

Chagas disease is a life-threatening illness caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. One of the characteristics of chronic chagasic infection is the parasitic persistence in cardiac and smooth muscle tissues. For this reason etiologic treatment of Chagas disease in all phases of infection is highly recommended. Despite the high number of trypanocidal drugs that have been discovered in the last years, only two compounds, Benznidazole and Nifurtimox remain as the unique drugs approved for Chagas treatment. Far from ideal, these drugs display low sensitivity and specificity resulting in limited applications, mainly in the onset of the acute phase. Thus there is an urgent need to validate new anti- T. cruzi drugs that can be applied even in the cases of chronic patients, those who today have no safe and effective treatment available. This paper reviews the most important compounds that have been tested in clinical trials and the results obtained to date.