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Source: http://www.eurasiareview.com/18122012-new-patient-profile-and-treatment-for-chagas-disease/
New Patient Profile And Treatment For Chagas Disease
By: Tierramerica
December 18, 2012
By Estrella Guti?rrez
Chagas disease, the third most serious infectious disease in Latin America, is developing a ?new face? and moving into urban areas, while a new treatment may offer hope for millions of sufferers...
...But the promising findings of two Venezuelan researchers, Julio Urbina and Gustavo Benaim, have led Argentina and Bolivia to conduct clinical trials based on their experiments, while in Venezuela, ?we hope to conduct a pilot study as well,? she reported.
Benaim, head of the cell signaling and parasite biochemistry laboratory at the state-run Institute of Advanced Studies, told Tierram?rica that the goal is ?to attack the parasite without affecting the human being, like current treatment methods do,? as well as ?to develop drugs for the chronic stage, which are currently non-existent.?
The study is based on a specific property of Trypanosoma cruzi: its membranes do not contain cholesterol, but rather ergosterol, another sterol. ?If you eliminate the ergosterol, which is indispensible for it, you eliminate the parasite,? he explained.
There are drugs that block the synthesis of ergosterol, such as posaconazole, which is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, although only for the treatment of fungal infections.
The researchers linked this fact with another clinical observation: Chagas patients whose arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) was treated with amiodarone showed substantial improvement. ?When it is applied to the parasites it is lethal for them,? Benaim enthusiastically reported in his laboratory.
Amiodarone is already used to treat arrhythmia, and 30 percent of Chagas sufferers in the United States receive it. It is not completely harmless, since it contains iodine, but its side effects are much milder than those of current treatments, said Benaim.
?We studied the mechanism of action of posaconazole and amiodarone; both of them were already known to be sterol inhibitors, but we demonstrated that amiodarone also alters the calcium regulation of the parasites,? he reported.
?Combining them boosts their effect, makes it possible to lower dosages, and cuts down on side effects,? he added.
Another new antiarrhythmic drug, dronedarone, which contains less iodine and is more easily eliminated, was also tested in their laboratory and ?proved to be very successful. It is more powerful and acts more rapidly? in destroying the parasite, said Benaim.
An article on the new treatment was published in October in Nature Reviews Cardiology. In addition to Chagas disease, it can also be effective against other diseases caused by parasites, such as leishmaniasis...
New Patient Profile And Treatment For Chagas Disease
By: Tierramerica
December 18, 2012
By Estrella Guti?rrez
Chagas disease, the third most serious infectious disease in Latin America, is developing a ?new face? and moving into urban areas, while a new treatment may offer hope for millions of sufferers...
...But the promising findings of two Venezuelan researchers, Julio Urbina and Gustavo Benaim, have led Argentina and Bolivia to conduct clinical trials based on their experiments, while in Venezuela, ?we hope to conduct a pilot study as well,? she reported.
Benaim, head of the cell signaling and parasite biochemistry laboratory at the state-run Institute of Advanced Studies, told Tierram?rica that the goal is ?to attack the parasite without affecting the human being, like current treatment methods do,? as well as ?to develop drugs for the chronic stage, which are currently non-existent.?
The study is based on a specific property of Trypanosoma cruzi: its membranes do not contain cholesterol, but rather ergosterol, another sterol. ?If you eliminate the ergosterol, which is indispensible for it, you eliminate the parasite,? he explained.
There are drugs that block the synthesis of ergosterol, such as posaconazole, which is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, although only for the treatment of fungal infections.
The researchers linked this fact with another clinical observation: Chagas patients whose arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) was treated with amiodarone showed substantial improvement. ?When it is applied to the parasites it is lethal for them,? Benaim enthusiastically reported in his laboratory.
Amiodarone is already used to treat arrhythmia, and 30 percent of Chagas sufferers in the United States receive it. It is not completely harmless, since it contains iodine, but its side effects are much milder than those of current treatments, said Benaim.
?We studied the mechanism of action of posaconazole and amiodarone; both of them were already known to be sterol inhibitors, but we demonstrated that amiodarone also alters the calcium regulation of the parasites,? he reported.
?Combining them boosts their effect, makes it possible to lower dosages, and cuts down on side effects,? he added.
Another new antiarrhythmic drug, dronedarone, which contains less iodine and is more easily eliminated, was also tested in their laboratory and ?proved to be very successful. It is more powerful and acts more rapidly? in destroying the parasite, said Benaim.
An article on the new treatment was published in October in Nature Reviews Cardiology. In addition to Chagas disease, it can also be effective against other diseases caused by parasites, such as leishmaniasis...