Leishmaniasis is caused by a parasite that can live in people, dogs and rodents. Spread by the bites of tiny sand flies, the disease causes lesions, severe disfigurement and when the parasites invade internal organs, death. African sleeping sickness, spreads among people bitten by the tsetse fly. Symptoms begin with low fever, pain in the joints and itchy skin. Eventually the parasites carrying the disease enter the brain and then hallucinations and unpredictable behaviour is common.
Victims experience excruciating pain and eventually lapses into a coma before dying.
The investigators say Ketri's role will include evaluation of toxicity of the selected compounds in the velvet monkey model. It will also evaluate promising lead compounds for in vitro and in vivo activity against drug resistant isolates, including diamidine resistant isolates in the vervet monkey model of chronic t.b. rhodesiense infection. According to Dr Ndungu, it is proposed that two to three compounds that show improved activities and reduced host toxicity will be tested in the monkey model each study year. One compound at present being tested in the monkey model has shown no toxic manifestation at the proposed dosage. This project has as its background in the resurgence of human African trypa- nosomosis which has occurred in the past decade in large portions of Central Africa.