[Current drugs for the treatment of tropical malaria]

The occurrence in the early 60's of stable resistance to chloroquine among Plasmodium falciparum strains in the Amazonas and on the Thai-Cambodian border has been a shock for all malariologists. This led to the search for new antimalarials without cross resistance with chloroquine. For each new drug, one of the major concerns was to define how rapidly parasites would develop resistance to this compound. Drug combinations were taken into consideration so as to achieve a delay in the appearance of resistance. The decision to test a triple combination has led to the development of Fansimef, a fixed combination with tablets containing 250 mg mefloquine, 500 mg sulfadoxine and 25 mg pyrimethamine. A very relevant delay in the development of resistance was found both in-vivo--in the P. berghei model--and in-vitro using P. falciparum. Fansimef has also been under investigations for malaria. Controlled clinical trials were performed in Africa, South America and South East Asia. The documentation for this new indication will be submitted to registration authorities in 1991. A preference alternative to continuous chemoprophylaxis is stand-by malaria treatment for travellers to regions where the malaria risk is relatively low. Stand-by treatment is under investigations in France and in Switzerland. In the search for alternative remedies against drug resistant P. falciparum malaria our attention was directed to Yingzhaosu, a new sesquiterpene peroxide of plant origin from traditional Chinese medicine. A short and convenient synthesis of this ring system gave access to a variety of structural analogues of Yingzhaosu.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)