Mar 25 2024American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology The spread of schistosomiasis, a disease responsible for nearly 12,000 deaths globally each year, has been documented in 78 nations.
Sevan N. Alwan, an assistant professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, led the research team. "In recent reports, the cure rates for praziquantel were 60% in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease is highly endemic," said Alwan. "The drug limitations strongly warrant the need for new therapeutics with a distinctly different mechanism of action to reach a better cure rate."
The researchers developed and tested 350 compounds. Five of these killed human Schistosoma species as well as a praziquantel-resistant strain in animal models.