Trypanosoma cruzi at various stages of maturation and differentiation have been isolated by conventional cellular fractionation procedures and characterized by cell surface markers using 30 highly purified lectins encompassing all known sugar specificities. Cell surface carbohydrates of the various T. cruzi stages were analyzed by agglutination and lectin-binding assays. Specific receptors for ...

The present study reports the Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) evaluation of the hexanes and dichloromethane fractions from extracts of the red alga Centroceras clavulatum (C. Agardh) Montagne. Twenty three compounds were identified, totaling ca. 42% of both fractions (0.18 g mass extract). The main constituents of the fractions were hexadecanoic acid (17.6%) and pentadecanoic acid ...

This study investigates the in vitro activity of a number of flavonoids (kaempferol, quercetin, trifolin, and acetyl hyperoside) and their acetylated products: kaempferol acetate, quercetin acetate, trifolin acetate, and acetyl hyperoside acetate) isolated from the aerial parts of plant Consolida oliveriana against epimastigote, amastigote and metacyclic forms of T. cruzi, their cytotoxic again...

In Brazil and several other Latin American countries, Chagas’ disease still constitutes a serious medical and social problem, and there is a need to develop new, more-potent drugs with fewer side effects to effectively treat this disease. We investigated the antitrypanosomal effect of a crude extract, fractions, and a semi-purified subfraction rich in a mixture of isomeric labdane sesquiterpene...

Trypanosoma cruzi proline racemases (TcPRAC) are homodimeric enzymes that interconvert the L and D-enantiomers of proline. At least two paralogous copies of proline racemase (PR) genes are present per parasite haploid genome and they are differentially expressed during T. cruzi development. Non-infective epimastigote forms that overexpress PR genes differentiate more readily into metacyclic inf...

Trypanosoma vivax is one of the most common parasites responsible for animal trypanosomosis, and although this disease is widespread in Africa and Latin America, very few studies have been conducted on the parasite's biology. This is in part due to the fact that no reproducible experimental methods had been developed to maintain the different evolutive forms of this trypanosome under laboratory...

In continuation our effort to research the chemical space of aryloxy-naphthoquinones as potential anti-Chagas agents, we synthesized nine derivatives and these compounds were evaluated in vitro against epimastigote trypomastigote forms Mexican strains Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi). Most are highly active (IC50 < 1.0 µM) compared reference drug benznidazole (Bzn). Then on trypomastigotes, which i...