Human infection with Trypanosoma parasites (Chagas disease and Human African Trypanosomiasis) affects around 10 million people worldwide resulting in life-threatening disease. Treatment options are limited to historic drugs characterized by significant side effects and decreasing efficacy while new drug development efforts are largely neglected. Here, we review drug discovery effort in human trypanosomiasis undertaken in academia. Peroxisomal (Pex) transport system was validated as a target in Chagas disease and a number of compounds were delivered which have shown promising results in animal experiments. Future perspectives of exploring the Pex system in anti-trypanosoma drug development are discussed.

Keywords — Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, peroxin, Pex.

DOI: http://doi.org/10.24086/biohs2022/paper.566