Trypanosomatids parasites are causative agents of important neglected
tropical diseases, such as leishmaniasis and Chagas disease. In the absence of an
effective and safe vaccine, the main strategies currently available for the control of
these diseases are chemotherapy whit drugs limited by their cost, toxicity, long time of
treatment, and by emergence of resistant parasites. Therefore, in silico methods have
arisen in the last years as powerful tools to optimize the search for new drugs and
targets and for potential antigens for vaccines. In this context, the aim of this chapter is
to provide the reader with important tools in use for drug design, particularly for
molecular docking and epitope prediction for vaccines, in order to make useful to put
this concepts and approaches in practice. All these tools should be applied in the fight
against trypanosomatids.
Keywords: Drug design, Epitope, In silico, Molecular docking, Target,
Trypanosomatids, Vaccine design.
