Orally active antimalarials: hydrolytically stable derivatives of 10-trifluoromethyl anhydrodihydroartemisinin

New fluoroartemisinin derivatives containing polar or water-soluble functionalities at C-16 (11a-j, 12a-g) were synthesized using the key intermediate 16-bromo-10-trifluoromethyl anhydrodihydroartemisinin 10. The substitution reaction from 10 was more selective than that from the nonfluorinated parent bromide; the allylic bromide 10 underwent no allylic rearrangement and provided only nucleophilic substitution products in high yields with N-, O-, and C-nucleophiles. Among them, amines 11a-c appeared to be highly in vivo efficient antimalarials on mice infected with Plasmodium berghei, more than the reference sodium artesunate 1d. In particular, the most effective piperazinoethanol derivative 11b cured all mice after oral treatment at a dose lower than 10 mg/kg. Further pharmacokinetic studies showed that the bioavailability in rats following oral administration was 25 times greater for 11b than for artemether 1b.