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Updated: May 31, 2026

Bioluminescence Imaging to Detect Late Stage Infection of African Trypanosomiasis
Published on: May 18, 2016
Development of novel drugs for human African trypanosomiasis
Reto Brun1, Robert Don, Robert T Jacobs
1Department Medical Parasitology & Infection Biology, Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute, and, University of Basel, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland. brun@unibas.ch
Abstract:
Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) or 'sleeping sickness' is a neglected tropical disease caused by the parasite Trypanosoma brucei. Novel models for funding pharmaceutical development against HAT are beginning to yield results. The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) rediscovered a nitroimidazole, fexinidazole, which is currently in Phase I clinical trials. Novel benzoxaboroles, discovered by Anacor, Scynexis and DNDi, have good pharmacokinetic properties in plasma and in the brain and are curative in a murine model of stage two HAT with brain infection. The Consortium for Parasitic Drug Development (CPDD) has identified a series of dicationic compounds that can cure a monkey model of stage two HAT. With other screening programs yielding hits, the pipeline for new HAT drugs might finally begin to fill.
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