TALK about neglected. Around the world, 200 million people suffer from schistosomiasis – and it kills about 280,000 a year. Despite this toll there is only one drug, praziquantel, used to battle the flatworm that causes the disease. But there may soon be another.
Any parasite that resists praziquantel has a huge selective advantage, so drug resistance is likely to emerge unless it can be combined with another drug that works differently, says David Williams of Illinois State University in Normal.
Williams screened a large number of chemicals looking for those that block a vital enzyme unique to schistosome worms.…
