Screening of antimalarial drugs: An overview

Department of Pharmacology, Efforts to discover and develop new antimalarial drugs have increased dramatically in recent Maulana Azad Medical College, years mainly because of resistance to existing antimalarial drugs. Selection of candidate drugs Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, for clinical trials in man and the design of clinical protocols are based upon consideration of Delhi110002. data from a battery of preclinical test systems. All compounds are assessed initially in one or *Malaria Research Center, more primary screening models. A compound which is considered ‘active’ by well estabNo. 22, Sham Nath Marg lished criteria in primary screening test is considered for further evaluation in successively Delhi110054. more clinical tests. At the end of each stage of testing, a decision is taken to advance the compound to the next stage or discontinue it. Primary screening tests should have optimal Received: 17.5.2005 sensitivity, a high degree of reproducibility, high throughput, requiring a minimum quantity of Reveised: 5.9.2005 Accepted: 7.9.2005 test compound and should bear low cost. As there is growing need for newer and more efficacious antimalarial drugs especially in tropical countries, more sensitive and economical Correspondence to: screening models are needed. This review is an update of various conventional and latest in Bhupinder Singh Kalra vitro and in vivo screening methods being used for evaluation of antimalarial compounds E-mail: [email protected]