Table 3.

Drugs for the treatment of animal trypanosomiasis.

Drug class	Drug	Molecular targets	Disease form	Drug form	Route of administration	Major limitations and side effects	References
Phenanthridine	Homidium, isometamidium	Inhibits topoisomerase-II during DNA biosynthesis	Prophylaxis and treatment of T. evansi, T. vivax, T. congolense, and T. vivax; widely used in the treatment of animal trypanosomiasis	Powder for reconstitution	IM route	Highly toxic, drug resistance, highly polar, and these drugs are available in powder form for parenteral use during treatment of the early stage of disease	(119–121)
Aminoquinaldine	Quinapyramine	Trypanostatic, inhibits kinetoplastic DNA biosynthesis, loss of ribosomal function	Effective against T. congolense, T. vivax, T. brucei, and T. evansi	Powder for reconstitution	IM or IV route	Serious local reactions at site of injection, drug resistance	(122–124)
Diamidine	Diminazene	Inhibition of the kinetoplasmatic DNA biosynthesis	Treatment of T. evansi; widely used to treat animal African trypanosomiasis; most used drug for early animal African trypanosomiasis (AAT)	Powder for reconstitution	IM or IV route	Highly polar, poor permeation, poor brain permeation due to its cationic polar nature, although it is well tolerated, it requires repeated administration, leading to poor patient compliance	(125–128)
Melaminophenyl arsenical	Melarsomine	Inhibition of trypanothine reductase	T. evansi infection	Powder for reconstitution	Administered by IV or IM route	Rapidly metabolized in the plasma	(129–132)