Screening Chagas disease
Deliver a robust portfolio of early hits and lead series to enable drug discovery for Chagas disease
current phase of drug development
updated 14 Mar 2024
To identify new hit series that could be progressed and become new drug candidates for Chagas disease, DNDi tests chemical compounds for in vitro activity against T. cruzi. Collections of natural and synthetic compounds are typically accessed from partners and commercial suppliers, and high-throughput screening is conducted in collaboration with University of Dundee and Institut Pasteur Korea, with additional capacity provided by Nagasaki University beginning in 2022.
In 2015, to complement bilateral collaborations for screening and lead optimization, DNDi launched the NTD Drug Discovery Booster with several major pharmaceutical companies. The NTD Drug Discovery Booster continued until 2019, when screening activities were placed on hold to focus efforts on transitioning existing hit series into lead optimization projects.
Project updates
2023
DNDi continued to work with the Institute Pasteur Korea, University of Dundee, and Nagasaki University to identify new T. cruzi active hit series using its well-established high-throughput screening platform. New collections of both synthetic and natural product origin compounds acquired from commercial suppliers were screened to identify compounds with promising characteristics.
2022
DNDi maintained a similar screening strategy over 2022 to identify new T. cruzi active hit series. Recently, Nagasaki University has developed high-throughput screening capacity against T. cruzi, with DNDi providing technical advisory support. This additional screening capacity will primarily be used to access and screen compound collections available from partners in Japan, with a focus on natural products.
2021
Several new collections originating from pharmaceutical companies, not-for-profit organizations, research partners, and commercial providers were identified, contractually and physically accessed, and screened at Institut Pasteur Korea and University of Dundee. The emphasis has been on chemical novelty, notably through screening collections of natural origin and careful in silico examination of the chemical content of the libraries where possible.
2020
Several new collections originating from pharmaceutical and research partners were identified, contractually and physically accessed, and screened. Discussions continued with various pharmaceutical companies, not-for-profit organisations, and other entities to obtain access to new collections to keep building our screening pipeline. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly delayed the activities of almost all our screening partners from mid-March 2020 through the end of the year.
2019
To identify new hit series that could be progressed and become new drug candidates for Chagas disease, DNDi tests chemical compounds for activity against Trypanosoma cruzi. High-throughput screening of compounds from natural product and synthetic compound collections from partners or commercial suppliers have been conducted, and hits have been identified and are currently being progressed.
2017
More than 20 novel series were identified in 2017 and are currently being progressed.
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