The appearance of drug resistant parasites and the absence of an effective vaccine have resulted in the need for new effective antimalarial drugs. Consequently, a convenient method for in vitro screening of large numbers of antimalarial drug candidates has become apparent. The CyQUANT cell proliferation assay is a highly sensitive fluorescence-based method for quantitation of cell number by mea...

Quaternary ammonium compounds have received recent attention due to their potent in vivo antimalarial activity based on their ability to inhibit de novo phosphatidylcholine synthesis. Here we show that in addition to this, heme binding significantly contributes to the antimalarial activity of these compounds. For the study, we used a recently synthesized bis-quaternary ammonium compound, T16 (1...

Between 1998 and 2001, the Peruvian Ministry of Health made sweeping changes in its malaria treatment policies in response to a resurgence of disease and the spread and intensification of antimalarial drug resistance. On the Pacific Coast, the first-line treatment for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria was changed to combination therapy with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine plus artesunate; i...

Plasmodium liver stages represent potential targets for antimalarial prophylactic drugs. Nevertheless, there is a lack of molecules active on these stages. We have now developed a new approach for the high-throughput screening of drug activity on Plasmodium liver stages in vitro, based on an infrared fluorescence scanning system. This method allowed us to count automatically and rapidly Plasmod...

Title: Improving the role and contribution of pharmacokinetic analyses in antimalarial drug 1 clinical trials 2 3 4 Running Title: Pharmacokinetics in antimalarial drug trials 5 6 Katherine Kay, Eva Maria Hodel and Ian M. Hastings 7 8 Authors affiliation: Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool, L3 5QA, 9 UK 10 11 Corresponding author. Mailing address: Liverpool School ...

Malaria's ability to rapidly adapt to new drugs has allowed it to remain one of the most devastating infectious diseases of humans. Understanding and tracking the genetic basis of these adaptations are critical to the success of treatment and intervention strategies. The novel antimalarial resistance locus PF10_0355 (Pfmspdbl2) was previously associated with the parasite response to halofantrin...

Plasmodium parasites contain several unique membrane compartments in which prenylated proteins may play important roles in pathogenesis. Protein prenylation has also been proposed as an antimalarial drug target because farnesyltransferase inhibitors cause potent growth inhibition of blood-stage Plasmodium However, the specific prenylated proteins that mediate antimalarial activity have yet to b...

Drug resistance is one of the principal obstacles blocking worldwide malaria control. In Colombia, malaria remains a major public health concern and drug-resistant parasites have been reported. In vitro drug susceptibility assays are a useful tool for monitoring the emergence and spread of drug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum. The present study was conducted as a proof of concept for an antimal...

This review was done to fulfil the following objectives: • to present a brief overview on the current global concepts concerning antimalarial drug resistance; • to review historical data about the emergence of drug resistance in the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region; • to present the available information on the current prevalence of drug-resistant falciparum malaria in the Region; ...