Spiral molecules with antimalarial activities: A review

Malaria is a prevalent fatal disease in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. Combinations of Artemisinin, folate antagonists, quinolines, and antibiotics are major choices in clinics. Currently, wide range of parasite's resistance necessitates the search for chemical compounds with new structures and novel antimalarial targets. The literature review was performed covering the relevant literatures published from 1966 to 2021. On the basis of structural classification (spiro-peroxides, spiroindolones, spirocyclohexadienones et al.), different types of molecules were summarized with resources, anti-malarial activities, structure-activity relationship, target introductions, resistance, development progress, and synthetic strategies, for the purpose of providing comprehensive information for developing antimalarial drugs to overcome drug resistance and highlighting the importance of the spiral structure in medicinal chemistry.