Compounds from African Medicinal Plants with Activities Against Selected Parasitic Diseases: Schistosomiasis, Trypanosomiasis and Leishmaniasis
Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: Parasites are considered as organisms that obtain their food by eating other organisms or their products in nature. These diseases continue to be a cause of considerable morbidity and mortality globally [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ], including Trypanosomiasis (African sleeping sickness and Chagas disease) [ 5 , 6 , 7 ], Leishmaniasis [ 8 ] and Schistosomiasis [ 9 , 10 ]. They threaten almost one-third of the world’s population, the most numerous incidents being recorded in over 100 tropical and developing countries and territories, Fig. 1 [ 11 , 12 , 13 ]. The African region recorded the most death-related cases, especially amongst infants below the age of 5 and pregnant women. Schistosomiasis, caused by parasites of the Schistosoma genus are responsible for about 200 million sickness cases and about 280,000 death-related incidents annually worldwide [ 9 , 10 , 14 ]. Only one drug (praziquantel) has been proven to be effective in the treatment of human Schistosomiasis, with no vaccine available or in development so far [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]. Serious concerns about drug selectivity and resistance were raised in 2013 when over 30 million people were treated in Sub-Saharan Africa [ 20 ]. Moreover, observed resistance and reduced efficiency of praziquantel in laboratory strains have prompted the search for alternative therapeutic strategies [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ].
Language: English
Subfield: Parasitology
Field: Immunology and Microbiology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2802383752