Small Molecules Effective Against Liver and Blood Stage Malarial Infection

Abstract

Malaria is a lethal disease causing devastating global impact by killing more than 8,00,000 individuals yearly. A noticeable decline in malaria related deaths can be attributed to the most reliable treatment, ACTs against P. falciparum. However, the cumulative resistance of the malaria parasite against ACTs is a global threat to control the disease and, therefore the new effective therapeutics are urgently needed, including new treatment approaches. Majority of the antimalarial drugs target BS malarial infection. Currently, scientists are eager to explore the drugs with potency against not only BS but other life stages such as sexual and asexual stages of the malaria parasite. Liver Stage is considered as one of the important drug targets as it always leads to BS and the infection can be cured at this stage before it enters into the Blood Stage. However, a limited number of compounds are reported effective against LS malaria infection probably due to scarcity of in vitro LS culture methods and clinical possibilities. This mini review covers a range of chemical compounds showing efficacy against BS and LS of the malaria parasite's life cycle collectively (i.e. dual stage activity). These scaffolds targeting dual stages are essential for the eradication of malaria and to evade resistance.

Keywords: Antimalarials; Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT); Chloroquine (CQ) resistance; Hybrid molecules; Malaria; Plasmodium falciparum (Pf)..