Transition Metal Complexes as Antimalarial Agents: A Review

Abstract

In antimalarial drug development research, overcoming drug resistance has been a major challenge for researchers. Nowadays, several drugs like chloroquine, mefloquine, sulfadoxine, and artemisinin are used to treat malaria. But increment in drug resistance has pushed researchers to find novel drugs to tackle drug resistance problems. The idea of using transition metal complexes with pharmacophores as ligands/ligand pendants to show enhanced antimalarial activity with a novel mechanism of action has gained significant attention recently. The advantages of metal complexes include tunable chemical/physical properties, redox activity, avoiding resistance factors, etc. Several recent reports have successfully demonstrated that the metal complexation of known organic antimalarial drugs can overcome drug resistance by showing enhanced activities than the parent drugs. This review has discussed the fruitful research works done in the past few years falling into this criterion. Based on transition metal series (3d, 4d, or 5d), the antimalarial metal complexes have been divided into three broad categories (3d, 4d, or 5d metal‐based), and their activities have been compared with the similar control complexes as well as the parent drugs. Furthermore, we have also commented on the potential issues and their possible solution for translating these metal‐based antimalarial complexes into the clinic.

Biannual Account of Anti‐malarial Agents reported in 2021 and 2022: A Comprehensive Coverage

“…Each of these substances demonstrates exceptional anti-malarial efficacy against resistant strains of P. falciparum. [13] The triazole moiety has been combined with various pharmacophores to provide synergistic effects that have increased the anti-malarial effectiveness even further. To combat various strains of P. falciparum, researchers have hybridized 1,2,3-triazoles with a variety of heterocyclic moieties, including quinoline, coumarin, ivermectin, pyrimidine, harmine, artemisinin, naphthoquinone, indolinone, chalcone, benzoquinone, β-lactam, and the metal complex.…”

“…Ru(II), Rh(III), and Ir(III) based anti‐malarial complexes that use artemisinin, sulfadoxine, or chloroquine as ligand pendant, 2‐phenylbenzimidazole based complexes, Zn(II) complex of valproate, 3D metal based macrocyclic complexes, and artemisinin or chloroquine attached ferrocenes have been some other medications that demonstrate novel strategies. Each of these substances demonstrates exceptional anti‐malarial efficacy against resistant strains of P. falciparum [13] . The triazole moiety has been combined with various pharmacophores to provide synergistic effects that have increased the anti‐malarial effectiveness even further.…”