Antimalarial Agents

Antimalarial Agents: Design and Mechanism of Action seeks to support medicinal chemists in their work towards antimalarial solution, providing practical guidance on current developments and highlighting promising leads for the future.

Malaria is a deadly disease which threatens half of the world’s population. Advances over the last decade have seen vast improvements in the effectiveness of both preventative measures and treatments, but the rapid adaptability of the disease means that the ongoing search for improved and novel antimalarial drugs is essential.

Beginning with a focus on biological aspects of malaria, this book highlights the lifecycle of the parasite responsible for malaria, the problem of resistance, genetic mapping of the parasite’s genome, established drug targets, and potential drug targets for the future. The book also includes detailed study of the medicinal chemistry of antimalarial agents and a focus on the design of antimalarial drugs.

Drawing on the knowledge of its expert authors and coupling historic research with current findings to provide a full picture of both past and current milestones, Antimalarial Agents: Design and Mechanism of Action is a comprehensive yet accessible guide for all those involved in the design, development and administration of antimalarial drugs, including academic researchers, medicinal chemists, malaria researchers and pharmaceutical scientists.

• Consolidates current developments in the discovery and design of antimalarial drugs
• Presents content in a style that is both thorough and engaging, providing a supportive and guiding reference to students and researchers from interdisciplinary backgrounds
• Highlights drug targets currently considered to be the most promising for future therapies, and the classes of compounds that are currently being studied and perfected

Medicinal Chemists; Malaria researchers; Pharmaceutical Scientists; Graduates and academic researchers

1. Historical overview of malaria and its treatment
2. Knowing one’s enemy: The Plasmodium parasite
3. The cinchona alkaloids and the aminoquinolines
4. Artemisinin and artemisinin-related agents
5. Agents acting on pyrimidine metabolism
6. Antimalarial agents acting on hemoglobin degradation
7. Plasmepsin inhibitors
8. Falcipain inhibitors
9. Agents acting on apicoplast pathways
10. Drugs targeting mitochondrial functions
11. Proteasome inhibitors
12. Transferase inhibitors
13. Kinase inhibitors
14. Miscellaneous agents of clinical interest
15. Inhibitors of purine and pyrimidine pathways
16. Miscellaneous targets