Abstract
The emergence and spread of drug resistance are the major challenges in malaria eradication mission. Besides various strategies laid down by World Health Organization, such as vector management, source reduction, early case detection, prompt treatment, and development of new diagnostics and vaccines, nevertheless the need for new and efficacious drugs against malaria has become a critical priority on the global malaria research agenda. At several screening stages, millions of compounds are screened (1,000–2,000,000 compounds per screening campaign), before pre-clinical trials to select optimum lead. Carrying out in vitro screening of antimalarials is very difficult as different assay methods are subject to numerous sources of variability across different laboratories around the globe. Despite this, in vitro screening is an essential part of antimalarial drug development as it enables to resource various confounding factors such as host immune response and drug–drug interaction. Therefore, in this article, we try to illustrate the basic necessity behind in vitro study and how new methods are developed and subsequently adopted for high-throughput antimalarial drug screening and its application in achieving the next level of in vitro screening based on the current approaches (such as stem cells).
Highlights
Malaria is known for millennium for causing fatal consequences
More emphasis is given to discovering new antimalarial drugs as a result of higher prevalence of resistance to most of the known antimalarial drugs in Southeast Asian countries (Noedl et al, 2008; Dondorp et al, 2009; Phyo et al, 2012) and to overcome this situation various academic as well as non-profit institutions are signing agreement with major pharmaceutical industry to develop some new antimalarial drugs
There are few new antimalarial agents that are under clinical trial procedures and many of these agents are those which were resurrected from earlier antimalarial drug discovery programs (Gelb, 2007)
Summary
Malaria is known for millennium for causing fatal consequences. Basically, it is caused by five different species of Plasmodium namely falciparum, vivax, malariae, ovale, and knowlesi. With advancement in knowledge regarding parasite biology, material science, and technology, there are a number of in vitro antimalarial assay methods that are used to screen antimalarials acting at the erythrocytic stage and at the liver stage and the gametocyte stages. Most of these in vitro efficacy models assist us with direct knowledge toward any potential new drug/disease, serendipitous identification of new moieties in less time with minimum accountability and enable to determine antimalarial resistance patterns (Fidock et al, 2004). In this article we try to illustrate the basic necessity behind in vitro study and how new methods are developed and subsequently adopted for high throughput antimalarial drug screening and its application in achieving the level of in vitro screening based on the current approaches (such as stem cells)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
