Given the high morbidity for mother and fetus associated with malaria in pregnancy, safe and efficacious drugs are needed for treatment. Artemisinin derivatives are the most effective antimalarials, but are associated with teratogenic and embryotoxic effects in animal models when used in early pregnancy. However, several organ systems are still under development later in pregnancy. We conducted...

Artemisinin is one of the most potent anti-malaria drugs and many often-lengthy routes have been developed for its synthesis. Amorphadiene synthase, a key enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway of artemisinin, is able to convert an oxygenated farnesyl diphosphate analogue directly to dihydroartemisinic aldehyde, which can be converted to artemisinin in only four chemical steps, resulting in an effi...

BACKGROUND Malaria elimination requires a variety of approaches individually optimized for different transmission settings. A recent field study in an area of low seasonal transmission in South West Cambodia demonstrated dramatic reductions in malaria parasite prevalence following both mass drug administration (MDA) and high treatment coverage of symptomatic patients with artemisinin-piperaquin...

The potent antimalarial drug artemisinin has a high cost, since its only viable source to date is Artemisia annua (0.01-0.8% DW). There is therefore an urgent need to design new strategies to increase its production or to find alternative sources. In the current study, Artemisia carvifolia Buch was selected with the aim of detecting artemisinin and then enhancing the production of the target co...

The biological mode of action of artemisinin, a potent antimalarial, has long been controversial. Previously we established a yeast model addressing its mechanism of action and found mitochondria the key in executing artemisinin's action. Here we present data showing that artemisinin directly acts on mitochondria and it inhibits malaria in a similar way as yeast. Specifically, artemisinin and i...

With more than 500 million cases and at least 1 million deaths each year, malaria is a major global health problem. The main problem with malaria control is the emerging drug resistance among parasites causing the infection. Consequently, there is an urgent need for new drugs. The artemisinin endoperoxide antimalarials are highly effective, well tolerated and have become the most important clas...

We synthesized C-10 substituted triazolyl artemisinins by the Huisgen cycloaddition reaction between dihydroartemisinins (2) and variously substituted 1, 2, 3-triazoles (8a-8h). The antimalarial activities of 32 novel artemisinin derivatives were screened against a chloroquine-resistant parasite. Among them, triazolyl artemisinins with electron-withdrawing groups showed stronger antimalarial ac...

1. Lukinmaa S, Nakari UM, Liimatainen A, Siitonen A. Genomic diversity within phage types of Salmonella enterica ssp. enterica serotypes Enteritidis and Typhimurium. Foodborne Pathog Dis. 2006;3:97–105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/fpd.2006.3.97 2. Soyer Y, Moreno Switt A, Davis MA, Maurer J, McDonough PL, Schoonmaker-Bopp DJ, et al. Salmonella enterica serotype 4,5,12:I:-, an emerging Salmonella ...

Background Reductions in malaria transmission decrease naturally acquired immunity, which may influence the emergence of Plasmodium falciparum artemisinin-resistant phenotypes and genotypes over time. Methods Antibodies specific for P. falciparum antigens were determined in uncomplicated hyperparasitemic malaria patients over a 10-year period of declining malaria transmission and emerging art...