23/04/03

New weapons in the battle of the bugs

By: Dan Ferber

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<h1>New weapons in the battle of the bugs</h1>
<h4>By: Dan Ferber</h4>
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<p>Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, kills 50,000 people a year, and no effective drugs exist for more than 16 million people — most of them poor people in Latin America — with chronic infections.<BR><BR>But a new strategy, so far successful in lab dishes, aims to stop the parasite in its tracks.<BR><BR>The approach, developed by a group of Venezuelan researchers, prevents the parasite from making ergosterol, a fatty, cholesterol-like molecule that the parasite needs to keep its cell membranes working properly, among other key functions.<BR><BR>Reference: <em>Science</em> 295, 433 (2002)<BR><BR></p>

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<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/new-weapons-in-the-battle-of-the-bugs/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
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Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, kills 50,000 people a year, and no effective drugs exist for more than 16 million people — most of them poor people in Latin America — with chronic infections.

But a new strategy, so far successful in lab dishes, aims to stop the parasite in its tracks.

The approach, developed by a group of Venezuelan researchers, prevents the parasite from making ergosterol, a fatty, cholesterol-like molecule that the parasite needs to keep its cell membranes working properly, among other key functions.

Reference: Science 295, 433 (2002)