Artemisinin (ˌɑːtɪˈmiːsɪnɪn) and its semisynthetic derivatives are a group of drugs used in the treatment of malaria due to Plasmodium falciparum. It was discovered in 1972 by Tu Youyou, who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery. Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are now standard treatment worldwide for P. falciparum malaria as well as malaria due to other species of Plasmodium. Artemisinin is extracted from the plant Artemisia annua, sweet wormwood, a herb employed in Chinese traditional medicine. A precursor compound can be produced using a genetically engineered yeast, which is much more efficient than using the plant.
Artemisinin and its derivatives are all sesquiterpene lactones containing an unusual peroxide bridge. This endoperoxide 1,2,4-trioxane ring is responsible for their antimalarial properties. Few other natural compounds with such a peroxide bridge are known.
Artemisinin and its derivatives have been used for the treatment of malarial and parasitic worm (helminth) infections. Advantages of such treatments over other anti-parasitics include faster parasite elimination and broader efficacy across the parasite life-cycle; disadvantages include their low bioavailability, poor pharmacokinetic properties, and high cost. Moreover, use of the drug by itself as a monotherapy is explicitly discouraged by the World Health Organization, as there have been signs that malarial parasites are developing resistance to the drug. Combination therapies, featuring artemisinin or its derivatives alongside some other antimalarial drug, constitute the contemporary standard-of-care treatment regimen for malaria.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends artemisinin or one of its derivatives ― typically in combination with a longer-lasting partner drug ― as frontline therapy for all cases of malaria. For uncomplicated malaria, the WHO recommends three days of oral treatment with any of five artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs): artemether/lumefantrine, artesunate/amodiaquine (ASAQ), artesunate/mefloquine, dihydroartemisinin/piperaquine, or artesunate/sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine.
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This advanced Bachelor/Master level course will cover fundamentals and approaches at the interface of biology, chemistry, engineering and computer science for diverse fields of synthetic biology. This
Explores systems biology of metabolism, genome-scale models, and metabolic engineering applications.
Explores Systems Biology, metabolic pathways, genome-scale models, and bioinformatic tools for predictive biochemistry in bioproduction.
Explores RNA-based disease treatment, synthetic biology impact on therapeutics, and programmable RNA-targeting tools.
Artemisia annua, also known as sweet wormwood, sweet annie, sweet sagewort, annual mugwort or annual wormwood (), is a common type of wormwood native to temperate Asia, but naturalized in many countries including scattered parts of North America. An extract of A. annua, called artemisinin (or artesunate), is a medication used to treat malaria. Discovery of artemisinin and its antimalarial properties by the Chinese scientist, Tu Youyou, led to award of the 2011 Lasker Prize and 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
A natural product is a natural compound or substance produced by a living organism—that is, found in nature. In the broadest sense, natural products include any substance produced by life. Natural products can also be prepared by chemical synthesis (both semisynthesis and total synthesis) and have played a central role in the development of the field of organic chemistry by providing challenging synthetic targets.
The first chapter of this thesis describe the development of a general synthesis of ynimines, an under-exploited motif in organic chemistry. In the presence of an inexpensive copper catalyst and 2,2'-biquinoline, reaction of easily accessible O-acyloximes ...
Background Low-density (LD)Plasmodiuminfections are missed by standard malaria rapid diagnostic tests (standard mRDT) when the blood antigen concentration is below the detection threshold. The clinical impact of these LD infections is unknown. This study i ...
Transition-metal-catalyzed [4+2] heteroannulation of alpha,beta-unsaturated oximes and their derivatives with alkynes has been developed into a powerful strategy for the synthesis of pyridines. It nevertheless lacks regioselectivity when unsymmetrically su ...