Rational development of new sleeping sickness drugs

Narrow activity spectrum and toxicological considerations are major shortcomings of the current therapeutics used for the treatment of sleeping sickness. During the last decennial rational drug design approaches have entered the field and have opened new horizons for the future treatment of Trypanosoma infections. This short review summarizes the present status of antitrypanosomal rational drug design with special focuss on gGAPDH as worked out in the authors' laboratory.