Evaluation of the immunoreactivity of nerve growth factor and tropomyosin receptor kinase A in the esophagus of noninfected and infected individuals with Trypanosoma cruzi

Neuroprotective Treatments for Digestive Forms of Chagas Disease in Experimental Models: A Systematic Review

Chagas disease is an anthropozoonosis caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi and is characterized as a neglected disease. It is currently endemic in 21 countries on the Latin American continent, including Bolivia, Argentina, and Paraguay. Unfortunately, there are no optimally effective treatments that can reduce the damage caused in the digestive form of the disease, such as the neuronal destruction of the myenteric plexus of both the esophagus and the colon. Therefore, the objective of this systematic review was to report the possible pharmacological neuroprotective agents that were tested in murine models of the digestive form of Chagas disease. Inclusion criteria are in vivo experimental studies that used different murine models for digestive forms of Chagas disease related to pharmacological interventions with neuroprotective potential, without year and language restriction. On the other hand, the exclusion criteria were studies that did not approach murine models with the digestive form of the disease or did not use neuroprotective treatments, among others. The search in the PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and LILACS databases was performed on September 4, 2021. In addition, a manual search was performed using the references of the included articles. The risk of bias assessment of the studies was performed based on the SYRCLE tool guidelines, and the data from the selected articles are presented in this review as a narrative description and in tables. Eight articles were included, 4 of which addressed treatment with acetylsalicylic acid, 3 with cyclophosphamide, and 1 with Lycopodium clavatum 13c. In view of the results of the studies, most of them show neuroprotective activity of the treatments, with the potential to reduce the number of damaged neurons, as well as positive changes in the structure of these cells. However, more studies are needed to understand the mechanisms triggered by each drug, as well as their safety and immunogenicity. Systematic review registration is as follows: PROSPERO database (CRD42022289746).

Synthesis, Leishmanicidal, Trypanocidal, Antiproliferative Assay and Apoptotic Induction of (2-Phenoxypyridin-3-yl)naphthalene-1(2H)-one Derivatives

The coexistence of leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, and neoplasia in endemic areas has been extensively documented. The use of common drugs in the treatment of these pathologies invites us to search for new molecules with these characteristics. In this research, we report 16 synthetic chalcone derivatives that were investigated for leishmanicidal and trypanocidal activities as well as for antiproliferative potential on eight human cancers and two nontumor cell lines. The final compounds 8−23 were obtained using the classical base-catalyzed Claisen−Schmidt condensation. The most potent compounds as parasiticidal were found to be 22 and 23, while compounds 18 and 22 showed the best antiproliferative activity and therapeutic index against CCRF-CEM, K562, A549, and U2OS cancer cell lines and non-toxic VERO, BMDM, MRC-5, and BJ cells. In the case of K562 and the corresponding drug-resistant K562-TAX cell lines, the antiproliferative activity has shown a more significant difference for compound 19 having 10.3 times higher activity against the K562-TAX than K562 cell line. Flow cytometry analysis using K562 and A549 cell lines cultured with compounds 18 and 22 confirmed the induction of apoptosis in treated cells after 24 h. Based on the structural analysis, these chalcones represent new compounds potentially useful for Leishmania, Trypanosoma cruzi, and some cancer treatments.