Chemicals and Drugs Commons^™

Lowering The Cost And Raising The Efficiency Of A Cure To Chagas Disease, Madeleine Peters

Arkansas Women in STEM Conference

Chagas disease, classified as a neglected tropical disease (NTD), is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and is an underfunded and under researched disease. The only FDA-approved drug in the United States is benznidazole which is expensive, harmful, and only effective in the illness’ acute phase. The goal is to create a more effective, lower costing and less harmful drug by using a condensation reaction to substitute different amines to diethyl squarate (DES) to make cycloalkylsquaramides. Both DES and the amines used are relatively low in price with a simple, efficient, and high yielding synthesis. Low synthetic cost and ability …