Trichomonas vaginalis is the parasitic agent responsible for trichomoniasis, a common non-viral sexual transmitted disease of worldwide importance. This parasitic infection is normally treated with 5-nitroimidazole drugs which target the parasite’s DNA. However, the parasite has developed resistant strains against these drugs and, as a result, a new treatment that works different than the current drug of choice is needed. Castillo et al. reported that benzimidazole derivatives can act as good antiparasitic agents; some of them are even more active than 5-nitroimidazole drugs when tested for antiprotozoal activity. Stockman et al. identified that proton-pump inhibitor drugs, containing benzimidazole scaffolds, inhibit one of the parasite’s enzymes needed for survival, uridine nucleoside ribohydrolase (UNH). For a better understanding on how benzimidazoles affect the parasite, different benzimidazole derivatives are being synthesized using cyclocondensation, methylation, oxidation and amidation reactions. These compounds are then tested for their inhibitory effects on the enzyme rather than testing them with the whole parasite. If these compounds are found to show a similar profile towards UNH as the parasite, it supports our hypothesis that these benzimidazoles work as antiparasitic agents by inhibiting UNH.

Synthesis of benzimidazole derivatives for uridine nucleoside ribohydrolase targeting

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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