NewsDesk @bactiman63

Researchers from the University of Georgia have discovered a potential treatment for Chagas disease, marking the first medication with promise to successfully and safely target the parasitic infection in more than 50 years.

Triatoma pallidipennis
Image/James Gathany (CDC)

Human clinical trials of the drug, an antiparasitic compound known as AN15368, will hopefully begin in the next few years.

“I’m very optimistic,” said Rick Tarleton, corresponding author of the study and a UGA Athletic Association Distinguished Professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. “I think it has a really strong chance of being a real solution, not just a stand-in for something that works better than the drugs we currently have.”

The new drug works by targeting the parasite that causes the disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, also known as T. cruzi.

Published in Nature Microbiology, the study found the new medication was 100% effective in curing mice, as well as non-human primates that were naturally infected by the parasite at a research facility in Texas. The animals also experienced no significant side effects from exposure to the drug.

Read more at University of Georgia