Detalle de: Chapter 8. Medicinal Chemistry Strategies to Discover New Leishmanicidal Drugs

Leishmaniasis is a major public health problem faced by many countries. The available treatments are less than optimal due to significant limitations, such as the toxicity of the drugs used or the emergence of resistant strains. Thus, discovery and development of novel drug candidates with better pharmacological profiles are still required. Among the different strategies to discover new drugs, natural products and privileged structures are without any doubt excellent starting points for the rational design of drug candidates. Nowadays, selection of compounds from different sources based on target-based and/or whole-cell assays, together with repurposing of approved drugs, provides promising candidates to be developed as future drugs for the treatment of this neglected disease.