Recent progress on anti-Toxoplasma drugs discovery: Design, synthesis and screening

Area of Science:

• Parasitology
• Infectious Diseases
• Drug Discovery

Background:

• Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) poses significant health risks, especially to immunocompromised individuals and pregnant women, causing severe brain and eye diseases.
• Current toxoplasmosis treatments exhibit high host toxicity, long durations, and limited efficacy against chronic infections, necessitating new therapeutic strategies.
• Existing treatments fail to eradicate T. gondii tissue cysts, leading to chronic infections and relapses, with no approved drugs for pregnant women.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review and discuss recent advances (2009-2019) in the discovery of novel therapeutic agents against T. gondii.
• To explore effective and low-toxicity compounds for treating toxoplasmosis, addressing current treatment limitations.
• To highlight progress in developing new drugs to combat T. gondii infections, particularly for vulnerable populations.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of scientific publications and research articles.
• Analysis of drug discovery efforts focusing on agents targeting T. gondii.
• Categorization of findings based on five key aspects of drug discovery.

Main Results:

• Significant progress has been made in identifying novel compounds for toxoplasmosis treatment over the past decade.
• Research has explored various strategies to develop more effective and less toxic agents against T. gondii.
• Advances include the identification of potential drug candidates with improved efficacy against T. gondii.

Conclusions:

• Developing highly efficient and low-toxicity agents against T. gondii is an urgent priority.
• Recent drug discovery efforts show promise in addressing the limitations of current toxoplasmosis treatments.
• Continued research is essential to provide safe and effective therapies for T. gondii infections, especially for high-risk groups.