title: Defining the biology component of the drug discovery strategy for malaria eradication.
abstract: Malaria is still considered a deadly scourge in Africa, Asia, and South America despite improved vector control and curative treatments with new antimalarial combinations. The next challenge is to work towards disease eradication. To achieve this goal it is crucial to develop, validate, and integrate biological assays into test cascades that align with the key target product profiles. For anti-relapse, a parent molecule should kill hypnozoites or cause activation of Plasmodium vivax liver stages. For transmission blocking, dual equal-activity antimalarials killing both the asexual and the sexual parasite stages in human blood are favored. Finally, by assessing cross resistance and generating drug resistance in the laboratory, it is expected that new medicines with acceptable resistance profiles will be forthcoming.
authors.affiliation: Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), PO Box 1826, 20 route de Pré-Bois, 1215 Geneva 15, Switzerland. Electronic address: leroyd@mmv.org.
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Leroy
authors.affiliation: Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), PO Box 1826, 20 route de Pré-Bois, 1215 Geneva 15, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Brice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Campo
authors.affiliation: Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), PO Box 1826, 20 route de Pré-Bois, 1215 Geneva 15, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Xavier C
authors.initials: XC
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), PO Box 1826, 20 route de Pré-Bois, 1215 Geneva 15, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jeremy N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Burrows
authors.affiliation: Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), PO Box 1826, 20 route de Pré-Bois, 1215 Geneva 15, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Stéphanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cherbuin
mesh_terms: D000962:Antimalarials / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D060740:Disease Eradication; D055808:Drug Discovery; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D004351:Drug Resistance; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D000962:Antimalarials
keywords: anti-relapse drugs; drug resistance; malaria; transmission blocking