The currently spreading resistance of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum to artemisinin-based combination therapies makes an urgent need for new efficient drugs. Aiming to kill artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium, a series of novel hybrid drugs named Atokels were synthesized and characterized. Atokels are based on an 8-amino- or 8-hydroxyquinoline entity covalently bound to a 1,4-naphthoquinone through a polyamine linker. These drugs have been designed to target the parasite mitochondrion by their naphthoquinone moiety reminiscent of the antimalarial drug atovaquone, and to trigger a damaging oxidative stress due to their ability to chelate metal ions in order to generate redox active complexes in situ. The most effective Atokel drug shown a promising antimalarial activity (IC50 =622 nm on an artemisinin-resistant P. falciparum strain) and no cytotoxicity at 50 μm indicating a specific antiplasmodial mode of action.
Keywords: malaria; metal chelator; oxidative stress; quinoline; quinone.
© 2022 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.