9Th Brazilian Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry

Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) and leishmaniasis are two important neglected diseases that, together, account for approximately 7 to 8 million infected people worldwide and 40,000 to 80,000 deaths every year.1,2 Currently, there are only a few options for treatment of these diseases and, besides possessing severe side effects and variable efficacy, they are expensive, required for long treatment periods and some parasite strains are becoming resistant to these drugs.3 All these issues highlight the urgent need to develop new chemical entities that target Chagas disease and leishmaniasis more efficiently. In this work, we present the aminobenzimidazole series developed in collaboration with DNDi through the Lead Optimization Latin America (LOLA) consortium. Based on the initial hit DNDI0002673353 (from the GSK Kineto Box4) several analogs were designed, synthesized and screened until the lead compound LOLA471 with improved properties was obtained and progressed for in vivo proof of concept study for visceral leishmaniasis.