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Updated: Jun 21, 2025

Purification of Extracellular Trypanosomes, Including African, from Blood by Anion-Exchangers Diethylaminoethyl-cellulose Columns
Published on: April 6, 2019
Revisiting the dipeptidyl carboxypeptidase inhibitor captopril as a source of pan anti-trypanosomatid agents
Jean-Baptiste Garsi1, Sofiane Hocine1, Raphaël Hensienne1
1Department of Chemistry, Université de Montréal, Station Centre-Ville, C.P. 6128, Montreal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada.
Abstract:
The protozoan parasites Trypanosoma brucei, Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania spp. are responsible for continued propagation of neglected tropical diseases such as African sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis respectively. Following a report that captopril targets Leishmania donovani dipeptidyl carboxypeptidase, a series of simple proline amides and captopril analogues were synthesized and found to exhibit 1-2 μM in vitro inhibition and selectivity against Trypanosoma brucei, Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania spp. The results were corroborated with computational docking studies. Arguably, the synthetic proline amides represent the structurally simplest examples of in vitro pan antiprotozoal compounds.
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