Researchers Discover New Antimalarial Compounds

This is the second new class of antimalarials discovered by the same group in the last two years and holds promise as a next-generation treatment for malaria.

A team of researchers led by Novartis and The Scripps Research Institute in the US has discovered a new family of antimalarial drug compounds that target both liver and blood infections and have the potential both to treat and prevent the disease.

Details of the discovery of the imidazolopiperazines (IZPs) have been published in Science Express, the online version of the US journal Science. The dual-acting compounds attack the Plasmodium parasite at both stages in its reproduction cycle. Most antimalarial drugs, including Novartis’ Coartem, only target parasites in the blood.

The scientists developed a novel assay to determine liver stage activity of candidate small molecules then used the assay and other tools to identify and optimise a chemical scaffold with