US EPA

1558073 

Journal Article 

Malaria biology and disease pathogenesis: insights for new treatments 

Miller, LH; Ackerman, HC; Su, X; Wellems, TE 

2013 

1 

Nature Medicine
ISSN: 1078-8956
EISSN: 1546-170X 

19 

2 

156-167 

23389616 

10.1038/nm.3073 

WOS:000314675900024 

Plasmodium falciparum malaria, an infectious disease caused
by a parasitic protozoan, claims the lives of nearly a million children each year in Africa alone
and is a top public health concern. Evidence is accumulating that resistance to artemisinin
derivatives, the frontline therapy for the asexual blood stage of the infection, is developing in
southeast Asia. Renewed initiatives to eliminate malaria will benefit from an expanded repertoire
of antimalarials, including new drugs that kill circulating P. falciparum gametocytes, thereby
preventing transmission. Our current understanding of the biology of asexual blood-stage
parasites and gametocytes and the ability to culture them in vitro lends optimism that high-
throughput screenings of large chemical libraries will produce a new generation of antimalarial
drugs. There is also a need for new therapies to reduce the high mortality of severe malaria. An
understanding of the pathophysiology of severe disease may identify rational targets for drugs
that improve survival.