In vitro screens in the experimental chemotherapy of leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis.

The search for more effective drugs for the treatment of leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis has increasingly involved the use of in vitro screens. These possess the immediate advantages of requiring only a few mg of compound for tests, providing for a large through-put of compounds with rapid results at lower costs, and requiring fewer animals. Models for the cultivation or maintenance in vitro of 'mammalian stages' of Leishmania and Trypanosoma cruzi have been available for many years but only in the last decade have satisfactory techniques for the cultivation of bloodstream forms of T. brucei been developed.