Antimalarials and the fight against malaria in Brazil

Abstract

Malaria, known as the "fevers," has been treated for over three thousand years in China with extracts of plants of the genus Artemisia (including Artemisia annua, A. opiacea, and A. lancea) from which the active compound is artemisin, a sesquiterpene that is highly effective in the treatment of the disease, especially against young forms of the parasite. South American Indians in the seventeenth century already used an extract of the bark of chinchona tree, commonly named "Jesuits' powder." Its active compound was isolated in 1820 and its use spread all over the world being used as a prophylactic drug during the construction of the Madeira-Mamoré railroad in the beginning of the twentieth century. During the 1920s to the 1940s, new antimalarial drugs were synthesized to increase the arsenal against this parasite. However, the parasite has presented systematic resistence to conventional antimalarial drugs, driving researchers to fi nd new strategies to treat the disease. In the present review we discuss how Brazil treats Plasmodium-infected patients.

Temporal patterns of haplotypic and allelic diversity reflect the changing selection landscape of the malaria parasitePlasmodium falciparum

“…P. falciparum gene flow therefore occurs across a region that is exposed to the varied public health measures in Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, and Venezuela (Sanna et al 2024). Across our sampling period, drug use varied throughout these countries, with a general trend of artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) selection pressure intensifying from 2005 onward across the Guiana Shield (Fig 1) (Peek et al 2005;Carmargo et al 2009;Breeveld et al 2012;Evans et al 2012;Legrand et al 2012;Musset et al 2014;Chenet et al 2017). Worldwide, a handful of validated variants are known to strongly impact parasite phenotype when treated with antimalarial drugs, and several of these variants have documented fitness costs in the absence of drug or collateral sensitivity (i.e., a mutation decreases susceptibility to one drug while increasing susceptibility to another).…”

In vitro and in vivo assessment of the anti-malarial activity of Caesalpinia pluviosa

“…The compounds most widely used to treat malaria, quinine and artemisinin, are derived from traditional medicine and plant extracts [ 2 ]. Quinine was the first drug successfully used to treat malaria.…”

“…Quinine was the first drug successfully used to treat malaria. However, this alkaloid has a high level of toxicity and a short pharmacological half-life, which limit its use [ 2 , 3 ]. Currently, artemisinin-based combination treatment (ACT) is the therapy of choice for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in areas of widespread parasite CQ-resistance [ 4 ].…”

Avaliação in vivo e in vitro da atividade antimalárica de Caesalpinia pluviosa e análise da fração ativa

“…Quinine was the first drug successfully used to treat malaria. However, this alkaloid has a high level of toxicity and a short pharmacological half-life, which limit its use [2,3]. Currently, artemisinin-based combination treatment (ACT) is the therapy of choice for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in areas of widespread parasite CQ-resistance [4].…”