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Updated: Nov 7, 2025
In Vitro Drug Screening Against All Life Cycle Stages of Trypanosoma cruzi Using Parasites Expressing β-galactosidase
Published on: November 5, 2021
Computer aided drug discovery review for infectious diseases with case study of anti-Chagas project
Nobuaki Yasuo1, Takashi Ishida2, Masakazu Sekijima3
1Academy for Convergence of Materials and Informatics (TAC-MI), Tokyo Institute of Technology, S6-23, 2-12-1, Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Abstract:
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are parasitic and bacterial infections that are widespread, especially in the tropics, and cause health problems for about one billion people over 149 countries worldwide. However, in terms of therapeutic agents, for example, nifurtimox and benznidazole were developed in the 1960s to treat Chagas disease, but new drugs are desirable because of their side effects. Drug discovery takes 12 to 14 years and costs $2.6 billon dollars, and hence, computer aided drug discovery (CADD) technology is expected to reduce the time and cost. This paper describes our methods and results based on CADD, mainly for NTDs. An overview of databases, molecular simulation and pharmacophore modeling, contest-based drug discovery, and machine learning and their results are presented herein.
