Hits and Lead Discovery in the Identification of New Drugs against the Trypanosomatidic Infections

The Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a group of 17 pathologies, recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), which are endemic in 149 countries of tropical and sub-tropical areas of the globe, and affect more than one billion people overall (Feasey et al. 2010). The pathologies are all caused by microparasites or macroparasites. Among the diseases provoked by microparasites, three are caused by kinetoplastidae, a group of flagellated protozoa transmitted by insect vectors: Chagas disease, Human African Trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis. The focus of the present chapter is on the identification of new drugs for the treatment of trypanosomatidic infections such as Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, and Human African Trypanosomiasis, caused by Trypanosoma brucei (Filardy et al. 2018).