Specific molecular targets to control tropical diseases

Chagas' disease or American trypanosomiasis is considered by the Word Healt h Organization to be one of the important tropical parasitic diseases world wide together with malaria and schistosomiasis. The etiologic agent of this illness is the kinetoplastid protozoon Trypanosoma cruzi. The present chem otherapy for the treatment of Chagas' disease remains unsolved. The drugs c urrently in use are old, ineffective and toxic. Bearing in mind the metabol ic differences between the parasite and the mammalian host, some attractive interesting molecular targets for drug design are presented.