Antimalarial drug discovery - approaches and progress towards new medicines.

Flannery, Erika L.; Chatterjee, Arnab K.; Winzeler, Elizabeth A.

Malaria elimination has recently been reinstated as a global health priority but current therapies seem to be insufficient for the task. Elimination efforts require new drug classes that alleviate symptoms, prevent transmission and provide a radical cure. To develop these next-generation medicines, public-private partnerships are funding innovative approaches to identify compounds that target multiple parasite species at multiple stages of the parasite life cycle. In this Review, we discuss the cell-, chemistry- and target-based approaches used to discover new drug candidates that are currently in clinical trials or undergoing preclinical testing.

ANTIMALARIALS; DRUG development; MALARIA prevention; CLINICAL trials; INFECTIOUS disease transmission; PARASITES; PUBLIC-private sector cooperation

Nature Reviews Microbiology, 2013, Vol 11, Issue 12, p849

1740-1526

Academic Journal

10.1038/nrmicro3138