Antimalarial drug discovery and design in the Era of resistance

Abstract

These are interesting times for antimalarial drug research. On the one hand, recent reports from Southeast Asia paint a grim picture of reduced malarial parasite susceptibility to artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs), currently the mainstay of antimalarial treatment in most of the world [1]. History has shown us that the protozoal parasite of malaria (Plasmodium), in particular the most lethal human parasite Plasmodium falciparum, is adept at acquiring resistance to the antimalarial drugs that we have deployed [2]. The fall from grace of former stalwarts such as chloroquine and sulphadoxine + pyrimethamine has in this respect been spectacular: in some regions the therapeutic lifespan of the latter has been as little as 5 years [3].