Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) pose an enormous threat to those in poverty-stricken regions of the world such as Central and South America. NTDs have affected the lives of nearly 2 billion people worldwide. With limited funds and resources, research on NTDs is lacking. Chagas disease, one such NTD, is a parasitic infection that is now becoming increasingly common throughout the southwest United States. Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, carried by an insect known as the “kissing bug”. Once infected, the insect passes parasites through their feces and can eventually cause “Chagas heart disease,” resulting in death. There are currently two drugs in the market for treating Chagas, benznidazole and nifurtimox. Benznidazole is the only drug of the two that is FDA-approved (only in children), and both drugs have severe side effects along with alarming reports of treatment failures due to drug resistance in T. cruzi. We aim to make a new class of anti-Chagastic compounds using disquaramide structural motifs. Disquaramides have shown to have anti-parasitic activity and are facile and cost-efficient to synthesize. Our research has incorporated the use of diamines in order to make cyclic disquaramides. To date, we have successfully synthesized three of these compounds with moderate to high yield (21-96%). The main focus of this research is to create inexpensive drugs to aid in the fight against Chagas disease.

Inexpensive and efficient approach toward a cure for Chagas disease

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.