Chapter 14a. Human Antiparasitic Agents

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses human antiparasitic agents with frequent reference to recent reviews that provide background information on broad aspects of parasite chemotherapy. Recently, significant progress has been made against parasitic diseases. However, better drugs are still needed for the treatment of many chronic and debilitating human parasitic diseases, including schistosomiasis, filariasis, Chagas' disease, leishmaniasis, trichuriasis, and strongyloidiasis. Moreover, a reappraisal of the status of malaria chemotherapy has indicated the urgent need for developing new fast-acting suppressive agents effective against drug-resistant plasmodia, the potential usefulness of long-acting drugs, particularly in malaria eradication programs, and the importance of developing safe and effective anti-relapse drugs capable of effecting a radical cure in a single dose or, at most, in a three-day regimen. The problems posed by the existence of drug-resistant strains of falciparum malaria have spurred efforts to develop better experimental models for studying this phenomenon. Strains of avian, murine, and/or simian parasites have been induced to acquire resistance to representatives of all the major classes of antimalarial drugs, and the resistant lines have been employed in cross-resistance studies to determine the interrelationship among the various chemical types.