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2000
Volume 18, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 0929-8673
  • E-ISSN: 1875-533X

Abstract

Efforts to develop an effective malaria vaccine are yet to be successful and thus chemotherapy remains the mainstay of malaria control strategy. Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes about 90% of all global malaria cases is increasingly becoming resistant to most antimalarial drugs in clinical use. This dire situation is aggravated by reports from Southeast Asia, of the parasite becoming resistant to the “magic bullet” artemisinins, the last line of defense in malaria chemotherapy. Drug development is a laborious and time consuming process, and thus antimalarial drug discovery approaches currently being deployed largely include optimization of therapy with available drugs—including combination therapy and developing analogues of the existing drugs. However, the latter strategy may be hampered by cross-resistance, since agents that are closely related chemically may share similar mechanisms of action and/or targets. This may render new drugs ineffective even before they are brought to clinical use. Evaluation of drug-resistance reversers (chemosensitizers) against quinoline-based drugs such as chloroquine and mefloquine is another approach that is being explored. Recently, evaluation of new chemotherapeutic targets is gaining new impetus as knowledge of malaria parasite biology expands. Also, single but hybrid molecules with dual functionality and/or targets have been developed through rational drug design approach, termed as “covalent bitherapy”. Since desperate times call for radical measures, this review aims to explore novel rational drug-design strategies potentially capable of revolutionizing malaria therapy. We thus explore malaria apoptosis machinery as a novel drug target, and also discuss the potential of hybrid molecules as well as prodrugs and double prodrugs in malaria chemotherapy.

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/content/journals/cmc/10.2174/092986711793979742
2011-01-01
2024-10-31
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/content/journals/cmc/10.2174/092986711793979742
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): acute lymphocytic leukemia; ADP-ribosylation; alkylating agent; anthracycline; Anticancer Agents; anticancer agents; antifolates; Antimalarial drugs; antiplasmodial activity; Apicoplast; apoptosis; archaebacterial topoisomerase; artesunate-sulfadoxine pyrimethamine; aspartic proteases; ATP; bioactive drug; bioinformatics tools; calcium pools; carboxy terminal; cell shrinkage; cell-shrinkage; cell-signaling enzymes; chemosensitizers; Chemotherapy; chloroquine; ciprofloxacin; cofactor; conjugated; covalent bitherapy; cysteine; cytochrome; cytoplasmatic vacuolization; cytosol; dehydrogenase; density; Depolarization; Dictyostelium discoideum; DNA; DNA Topoisomerases; drug's availability; dysfunctional DNA; elucidation of drugs; Entamoeba histolytica; Epipodophyllotoxins; eukaryotes; fungi; Glutathione; haemoglobin; haemoglobin metabolism; heterocycle; homeostatic functions; hybrid drugs; hybrid molecules; immune system; Inhibitors; intracellular K+; intraerythrocytic; intraerythrocytic parasites; isoforms; isolates; lipoic acid; malaria; membrane blebbing; mitochondrial dysfunction; mitochondrial membrane; Mosquitoes; necrosis; neurological disorders; novel drug; Novel Rational Drug Design Strategies with Potential to Revolutionize Malaria Chemotherapy; ookinete; orthologues; padophyllotoxin; penfluridol; peptidomimetic compounds; plasmepsins; plasmodial CDK inhibitors; Plasmodium; Plasmodium falciparum; poisons; prodrugs; promyelocytic leukemia; prosthetic groups; Protease inhibitors; protozoal parasite; purine salvage; pyrimidine biosynthetic; Rational Drug; rational drug design; Reduction; RNA polymerase II; sarcoma; schizogony; small-cell lung cancer; sodium nitroprusside; sporogonic stage; supecoils; synchrony; testicular cancer; topoisomerases; transferrin receptor (TfR); Triclosan; trophozoite; typical dual drug; vasodilators; verapamil; vertebrate host; World Health Organization; xenobiotic detoxification; zygote
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