[Antimalarial chemotherapy one hundred years after Laveran (problems and prospects) (author's transl)]

Problems of experimental chemotherapy of human malaria are complex because of specificity of plasmodia of birds, rodents and monkeys to several animal hosts. Moreover antimalarial compounds now available or developed in the course of laboratory assessment of their potential value have also specific chemotherapeutic action on various plasmodia and on a particular phase of their cycle of development. Research aiming at the discovery of new antimalarials may follow two paths. One is a screening on an animal model of a very large number of compounds hoping that one of them will show a promising antiplasmodial effect. The other method is based on fundamental study of biochemical pathways of various species of malaria parasites, to find compounds that will interfere with the multiplication or survival of human plasmodia. The use of laboratory animals and particularly monkeys has been a paramount factor during the past twenty years. The recent possibility of assessing the value of new compounds on an in vitro culture of plasmodia is of considerable promise, although it could not replace the use of experimental animals. The final testing of compounds that have successfully passed the toxicity test, on cases of human malaria raises many important ethical and other issues.