The natural lignans veraguensin and grandisin have been reported to be active against Trypanosoma cruzi bloodstream forms. Aiming at the total synthesis of these and related compounds, we prepared three 2-arylfurans and eight 2,5-diarylfurans. They were evaluated for their potential as T. cruzi trypanothione reductase (TR) 60% at 20 µg/ml (59 and 90 µM, respectively). On the other hand, none of the compounds was significantly active against the parasite bloodstream forms even at 250 µg/ml (0.6-1.5
mM).Key words: tropical diseases -Chagas disease -arylfurans -trypanothione reductase Chagas disease, caused by the flagellate protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, affects 18 million people in Latin America and is responsible for 13,000 deaths every year (WHO 2002). The treatment relies on only two available drugs, nifurtimox and benznidazole, which are relatively efficient in the acute phase of the disease, but almost ineffective in the chronic phase. Nowadays, one of the most important mechanisms of Chagas disease transmission in many countries is by blood transfusion (Schmuñis 1991). In highly endemic areas it is strongly recommended the use of chemoprophylatic measures such as the addition of gentian violet to clear trypomastigotes from blood banked for transfusion (Moraes-Souza et al. 1995). Although effective, this triphenylmethane dye is not well accepted because of undesirable effects such as coloring the skin and possible mutagenicity (Wendel 1993). Thus, new drugs to treat or prevent Chagas disease are still needed.Trypanosoma cruzi enzymes such as the trypanothione reductase (TR) represent a potential drug targets because they play an essential role in the life of this parasite. TR and its substrate trypanothione, the disulfide of a glutathione-spermidine conjugate [N 1 , N 8 -bis(glutathionyl)spermidine, T(SH) 2 ] 1, help to protect the parasite from oxidative stress by maintaining an intracellular reducing environment in a manner analogous to glutathione reductase (GR) and glutathione [L-γ-glutamyl-Lcysteiylglycine, GSH] 2 (Fig. 1a) in mammalian cells (Schmidt & Krauth-Siegel 2002). TR catalyses the NADPHdependent reduction of trypanothione disulfide TS 2 to its dithiol form, T(SH) 2 . Trypanothione may be oxidized back to TS 2 (Fig. 1b) following reaction with potentially damaging radicals and oxidants generated by aerobic metabolism. Another aspect that makes TR an even more attractive target is its structural differences from the human counterpart GR. GR has a narrow positively charged active site, to accommodate the glycine carboxylates of its substrate glutathione, whereas TR has a wider, noncharged, and more hydrophobic active site (Bond et al. 1999). These differences allowed the discovery of several promising selective inhibitors of TR (Schmidt & KrauthSiegel 2002).Lignans is a class of natural products that possess important biological properties (Jensen et al. 1993). Lopes et al. (1998) showed that the tetrahydrofuran lignans veraguensin 3 and grandisin 4 (Fig. 2) were active in vitro at 5 µg/ml aga...