Antichagasic Activities of Natural Products against Trypanosoma cruzi

Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi) is a parasitic protozoan transmitted to mammalian hosts by blood-sucking triatomine bugs. Infections by T. cruzi, known as Chagas' disease, pose a major public health problem in endemic countries in Central and South America. New chemotherapeutic agents are desired because of the lack of effective vaccines, undesirable side effects of anti-chagasic drugs in use such as nifurtimox and benznidazole, and the emergence of parasite resistance to these drugs. In the past two decades, novel advances and an improved understanding of the biology and biochemistry of T. cruzi have led to the identification of various targets for chemotherapy to treat Chagas' disease. In addition, many efforts have been undertaken to develop antichagasic agents, such as designed and synthesized compounds, natural products, and their derivatives, against a number of targets. Here, I mainly review recent studies on the antichagasic activities of natural products.