[New antifungal and antiparasitic molecules]

Abstract

The antifungal and antiparasitic drugs research is particularly active for about twenty years and has provided many families of interesting molecules. The earliest antifungal imidazoles (kétoconazole and soon itraconazole) show a large activity spectrum and a good efficiency, especially in the deeply localized mycoses. As concerns the anthelmintics, the drugs recently introduced on the human medical market (flubendazole, albendazole, praziquantel) are largely used in veterinary medicine for many years. The most promising molecule for the future is the invermectin, peculiarly for the treatment of filariasis. The nitro-5-imidazoles family has some molecules with a good activity against protozoa, although they are bad contact amoebicid. Some rare molecules, escaped from a large laboratory screening (méfloquine, halofantrine) present an interesting antiplasmodial activity. But many tropical diseases (i.e. filariasis, leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis) are, for the moment, inaccessible for the lack of enough potent chemotherapy.