New Targets for Chagas Disease Diagnosis and Treatment
- Countries
- United States
- Application No.
- 7,780,969
- *Abstract
-
Background
Blood feeding insects are of great concern not only because of their annoying and often painful bites, but more importantly because many can also be carriers of pathogenic organisms that seriously injure or kill humans and domestic animals. Examples of diseases caused by such pests are Lyme disease, malaria, Chagas disease, bubonic plague, Rocky Mountain fever, and many more.
Trypanosoma cruzi causes Chagas disease in humans. Acute infection can be lethal, but the disease usually evolves into a chronic stage, accompanied in 25-30% of cases by severedebilitation and ultimately death. It is estimated that 16-18 million people are infected, primarily in Central and South America, with21,000 deaths reported each year.
Historical attempts to develop vaccines for such parasitic diseases have been largely futile, and there is a critical lack of methods for diagnosis and treatment for T. cruzi in particular.Improved drugs and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of T. cruzi infection are needed, as are improved diagnostic methods.
Technology Summary
Proteomic analysis of T. cruzi has identified many new life-stage specific molecular targets suitable for use in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of Chagas disease.
Advantages
- Previously unknown targets that are essential for energy generation in specific life cycle stages
- Discovery of additional stage-related T. cruzi proteins opens up new avenues for diagnosis, treatment and prevention
- Diagnosis of T. cruzi infection through any number of stage-specific T. cruzi proteins to provide more accurate diagnosisof Chagas disease
Potential Applications
- Vaccine development
- Diagnostic kits
- Targets for drug development
- Development of screening assays toidentify inhibitors of stage-related enzymespresent in mammalian host orinsect vectors, which could then be usedas therapeutic agents to treat T. cruziinfection
- *IP Issue Date
- None
- *IP Type
- Utility
- Country/Region
- USA
