New tools for malaria therapy

In the absence of vaccines, new chemotherapies are needed urgently to help in the prevention and control of malaria. A number of strategies are being followed world-wide in attempts to discover and develop them: (a) resurrecting 'forgotten' molecules; (b) developing new formulations of existing products; (c) finding ways to bypass known toxicological limitations of existing products; (d) looking for combinations of existing products; (e) discovering molecules which reverse the resistance phenotype; (f) identifying 'old' chemical entities (OCEs) for new, antimalarial, indications; (g) discovering new chemical entities (NCEs) directed towards already exploited biological targets; (h) discovering NCEs directed to novel biological targets. Examples of such strategies are given below, together with an indication of their advantages and limitations.