Potentiation of the antimalarial activity of qinghaosu by methoxylated flavones

• Published in: Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Vol. 81; no. 3; pp. 434 - 436
• Main Authors: Elford, Barry C., Roberts, Margaret F., Phillipson, J.David, Wilson, Robert J.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 1987; Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animals; Antibiotics. Antiinfectious agents. Antiparasitic agents; Antimalarials - pharmacology; Antiparasitic agents; Artemisia annua; Artemisinins; Biological and medical sciences; Clone Cells; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Drug Synergism; Flavonoids - pharmacology; Human protozoal diseases; Infectious diseases; Malaria; Medical sciences; Parasitic diseases; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Plasmodium falciparum; Plasmodium falciparum - drug effects; Plasmodium falciparum - growth & development; Protozoal diseases; Sesquiterpenes - pharmacology; Tropical medicine; Potentiation; Antimalarial; Flavones; Radiolabelling; In vitro; Interaction
• ISSN: 0035-9203; 1878-3503
• DOI: 10.1016/0035-9203(87)90161-1

Interaction between the flavones casticin and artemetin and the antimalarial activity of chloroquine and qinghaosu (QHS) was examined using an in vitro growth assay based on [ 3H]hypoxanthine incorporation in synchronized cultures of a cloned line of Plasmodium falciparum. Casticin, and to a lesser extent artemetin, selectively enhanced the inhibition of growth by QHS, but had little effect on the activity of chloroquine. The findings suggest that flavones indigenous to Artemisia annua, from which QHS is isolated, might significantly alter the clinical potential of this novel antimalarial drug in the treatment of chloroquine-resistant malaria.