New Drug Formulations for Chagas's Disease Treatment

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, entitled “New Drug Formulations for Chagas's Disease Treatment”, aims to collect high-quality papers in the field and cover the main pharmaceutical strategies to control the Trypanosoma cruzi infection that causes Chagas disease in humans. This is a neglected tropical disease with a high incidence in 21 countries of Latin America, where it represents a serious public health problem. Nowadays, Chagas disease has global significance according to the World Health Organization, because this parasitic infection is present in several countries of distinct continents and still remains without an efficacious treatment for its chronic phase in humans, partially because the parasite exhibits high genetic diversity with different drug susceptibilities across different countries.

Chagas disease is a life-threatening disease, even 100 years after its discovery by the Brazilian researcher Carlos Chagas in 1909. In recent years, many attempts have been made to find new options to treat this infection, such as new treatment schedules, new molecules, new drug combinations, drug-repositioning, and also new formulations to progress toward therapeutic options for Chagas disease control. There is an urgent need to develop safer treatments. One of the faster strategies is to develop new pharmaceutical formulations.

We encourage researchers from various pharmaceutical and tropical medicine fields to contribute with original and review manuscripts highlighting the latest developments in this topic. We ask for your help to encourage colleagues and experts to contribute to this Special Issue. We expect manuscripts to focus on different development stages of formulations, technological and biological testing such as in vitro screening, and pre-clinical and clinical phases employing different in vitro and in vivo models.

Original research and reviews are equally welcome. The scope of this Special Issue includes any study of molecules with Trypanosoma cruzi activity, such as:

• New benznidazole and/or nifurtimox formulations and treatment schedules;
• Biodistribution and pharmacokinetics studies of new molecules and drug formulations with activity against Trypanosoma cruzi;
• Formulation development of molecules with anti-T. cruzi activity;
• Formulation of natural products, isolated, and/or enriched extracts, with anti-T. cruzi activity;
• Biopharmaceutical studies with approved and investigational drugs;
• Formulation of drug combinations;
• Effects of pharmaceutical excipients on T. cruzi development;
• Formulation of repurposed molecules with T. cruzi activity;
• Nanotechnological strategies for T. cruzi passive and active targeting;
• Methods of preparation and scaling up of medicines for Chagas disease;
• Many other attempts in the field of pharmaceutics applying to the treatment of Chagas disease.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease.

Prof. Dr. Vanessa Mosqueira
Prof. Dr. Marta De Lana
Dr. Renata Tupinambá Branquinho
Dr. Fernanda Karoline Vieira da Silva Torchelsen
Guest Editors

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