Parasites, treating malarial

Miller, L. H., Aikawa, M., Johnson, J. G., and Shiroishi, T. (1979). Interaction between cytochalasin B-treated malarial parasites and erythrocytes. Attachment and junction formation.. Exp. Med. 149,172-184. 

A 16-year old girl was treated empirically with chloroquine (total 450 mg of chloroquine base) for fever, had no malarial parasites in the peripheral blood smear, but had severe hypoglycemia of 1.5 mmol/1 (27 mg/dl) (49). 

Pyrimethamine may also be combined with other antimalarials such as artemisinin derivatives, but these regimens should only be used if the malarial parasites are not resistant to the specific drugs in the regimen.13 Pyrimethamine can also be combined with a sulfonamide drug such as dapsone, sulfadiazine, or sulfamethoxazole to treat protozoal infections that cause toxoplasmosis, or fungal infections that cause Pneumocystis pneumonia.These agents are administered orally. 

Malaria remains a parasitic scourge that is still extending in incidenoe. In 1972, the aotive principle from Artemisia annua, a plant used for centuries in Chinese traditional medioine to treat fevers and malaria, was established as a novel antimalarial ohemotype. This oompound, artemisinin ( qinghaosu in Chinese), is a sesquiterpene lactone with an endoperoxide group that is essential for activity, and it reacts with the iron in heme in the malarial parasite, Plasmodium falciparum (Fig. 1.3). Beoause this compound is poorly soluble in water, a number... 

In order to study the distribution of ferroquine, ruthenoquine 56, an analog of ferroquine was prepared, in which the iron is replaced by ruthenium, a well-known contrasting agent in electron microscopy (Scheme 3.22) [139], Chemically, ruthenoquine is similar to ferroquine and possesses similar antimalarial activity. In infected mice treated with ruthenoquine, Ru atoms have been detected in the food vacuole, not only close to the malarial pigment but also in the membrane of the parasite. This clear difference from the case of chloroquine, which is never found in the membrane, could account for the difference in activity. 

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