Essay Example on Antiprotozoals: A Key to Control Parasitic Illnesses

Introduction

Parasitic illnesses cause serious health problems and economic impacts on society. Antiprotozoals have been in use for a long time to control the ailments caused by parasites such as Toxoplasma gondii (Liu et al. 2015). Development of antiprotozoal agents got done within the 1920s and 1930s. The parasites are known to spread infections to underdeveloped countries with poor hygiene conditions quickly. The pharmacological action of antiprotozoals depends on the type of protozoans being treated (Saccoliti et al. 2015). Most of the antiprotozoals are available in various dosages and are prescription-only medicines under the close supervision of healthcare professional staff.

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Definition of Disease and its Biological Causes

Toxoplasmosis is an ailment caused by the parasites, toxoplasmas. It is transmitted majorly through undercooked meat and faeces of cats by Toxoplasma gondii species which affects warm-blooded organisms (CaleroBernal et al. 2016). The disease is mostly zoonotic since it gets transmitted to humans from contamination of faecal material of cats. The parasites multiply within the lining of cells of the human gut to the other parts of the body. These parts are the brain, heart muscle, and lungs.

Mechanism of Action, Chemical Structure and SAR of Drugs

The action of antiprotozoal drugs is sophisticated and not clearly understood. However, some of the drugs are involved in the damage of the DNA of protozoans, interference with larval production of protozoans, and interference with metabolic processes hence limiting the spread of the infection (Montalvo-Quiro et al. 2015. The chemical structures of antiprotozoals activity exhibit a wide variety of chemical classes. The classes possess a narrow chemotherapeutic spectrum (Kaiser, M et al. 2015). SAR of drugs is essential in the prediction of biological activity from their structure of a molecule.

Difference between Analogues and the Significant Privilege of Recently Approved Drugs over the Old Ones

The significance of the newly approved drugs over the older ones is that they can control resistance developed by the protozoans in recent years. The recently developed antiprotozoals have higher pharmacological activities in the treatment of the toxoplasmosis.

References

CaleroBernal, R., PérezMartín, J. E., Reina, D., Serrano, F. J., Frontera, E., Fuentes, I., & Dubey, J. P. (2016). Detection of zoonotic protozoa Toxoplasma gondii and Sarcocystis suihominis in wild boars from Spain. Zoonoses and Public Health, 63(5), 346-350.

Kaiser, M., Mäser, P., Tadoori, L. P., Ioset, J. R., & Brun, R. (2015). Antiprotozoal activity profiling of approved drugs: a starting point toward drug repositioning. PLoS One, 10(8).

Liu, Q., Wang, Z. D., Huang, S. Y., & Zhu, X. Q. (2015). Diagnosis of toxoplasmosis and typing of Toxoplasma gondii. Parasites & Vectors, 8(1), 292.

Montalvo-Quiros, S., Taladriz-Sender, A., Kaiser, M., & Dardonville, C. (2015). Antiprotozoal activity and DNA binding of dicationic acridones. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 58(4), 1940-1949.

Saccoliti, F., Madia, V. N., Tudino, V., De Leo, A., Pescatori, L., Messore, A., ... & Mäser, P. (2018). Biological evaluation and structure-activity relationships of imidazole-based compounds as antiprotozoal agents. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 156, 53-60.