title: Antimalarial drugs - host targets (re)visited.
abstract: Every year, forty percent of the world population is at risk of contracting malaria. Hopes for the erradication of this disease during the 20th century were dashed by the ability of Plasmodium falciparum, its most deadly causative agent, to develop resistance to available drugs. Efforts to produce an effective vaccine have so far been unsuccessful, enhancing the need to develop novel antimalarial drugs. In this review, we summarize our knowledge concerning existing antimalarials, mechanisms of drug-resistance development, the use of drug combination strategies and the quest for novel anti-plasmodial compounds. We emphasize the potential role of host genes and molecules as novel targets for newly developed drugs. Recent results from our laboratory have shown Hepatocyte Growth Factor/MET signaling to be essential for the establishment of infection in hepatocytes. We discuss the potential use of this pathway in the prophylaxis of malaria infection.
authors.affiliation: Unidade de Malária, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Margarida
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cunha-Rodrigues
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Prudêncio
authors.forename: Maria M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Mota
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Haas
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000962:Antimalarials / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends*; D015195:Drug Design; D004351:Drug Resistance; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000962:Antimalarials