Megazol is a nitroimidazole based drug that cures some protozoan infections. A study of nitroimidazoles found the drug extremely effective against T. cruzi and T. brucei which cause Chagas disease and African sleeping sickness, respectively.
DB-766 is a potential chemotherapeutic candidate for Chagas' disease treatment. DB-766 exhibits strong trypanocidal activity and excellent selectivity for bloodstream trypomastigotes and intracellular amastigotes (Y strain), giving IC(50)s of 60 and 25 nM
WRR-483, an analogue of K-11777, is a potent and selective cysteine protease inhibitor with trypanocidal activity in cell culture and animal model with comparable efficacy to K11777. WRR-483 demonstrates good potency against cruzain with sensitivity to pH conditions and high efficacy in the cell culture assay. Furthermore, WRR-483 also eradicates parasite infection in a mouse model of acute Chagas' disease. WRR-483 binds covalently to the active site cysteine of the protease in a similar manner as other vinyl sulfone-based inhibitors. WRR-483 has potential to be developed as a treatment for Chagas' disease.