title: Synthetic chemistry fuels interdisciplinary approaches to the production of artemisinin.
abstract: In the developing world, multi-drug resistant malaria caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum is an epidemic that claims the lives of 1-3 million people per year. Artemisinin, a naturally occurring small molecule that has seen little resistance from malarial parasites, is a valuable weapon in the fight against this disease. Several easily accessible artemisinin derivatives, including artesunate and artemether, display potent antimalarial activity against drug-resistant malaria strains; however, the global supply of artemisinin from natural sources alone remains highly inconsistent and unreliable. As a result, several approaches to artemisinin production have been developed, spanning areas such as total synthesis, flow chemistry, synthetic biology, and semi-synthesis. This review highlights achievements in all areas, in addition to the interplay between synthetic biology and synthetic chemistry that has fueled the recent industrial-scale production of artemisinin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. mcorsello@ucla.edu neilgarg@chem.ucla.edu.
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Corsello
authors.forename: Neil K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Garg
mesh_terms: D000962:Antimalarials / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D000077549:Artemether; D037621:Artemisinins / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D000077332:Artesunate; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial / Q000187:drug effects; D008288:Malaria / Q000188:drug therapy*; D015394:Molecular Structure; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000962:Antimalarials; D037621:Artemisinins; D000077332:Artesunate; C031327:artemisinin; D000077549:Artemether