Natural Products: A Potential Source of Malaria Transmission Blocking Drugs?

The ability to block human-to-mosquito and mosquito-to-human transmission of parasites is fundamental to accomplish the ambitious goal of malaria elimination. The WHO currently recommends only primaquine as a transmission-blocking drug but its use is severely restricted by toxicity in some populatio...

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Published inPharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 13; no. 9; p. 251
Main Authors Moyo, Phanankosi, Mugumbate, Grace, Eloff, Jacobus N, Louw, Abraham I, Maharaj, Vinesh J, Birkholtz, Lyn-Marié
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland MDPI 17.09.2020
MDPI AG
Subjects
Anopheles
extracts
malaria
natural products
Plasmodium
Review
transmission blocking
Plasmodium
natural products
ookinete
Anopheles
oocyst
gametocytes
gametes
endectocide
extracts
transmission blocking
malaria
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Summary:The ability to block human-to-mosquito and mosquito-to-human transmission of parasites is fundamental to accomplish the ambitious goal of malaria elimination. The WHO currently recommends only primaquine as a transmission-blocking drug but its use is severely restricted by toxicity in some populations. New, safe and clinically effective transmission-blocking drugs therefore need to be discovered. While natural products have been extensively investigated for the development of chemotherapeutic antimalarial agents, their potential use as transmission-blocking drugs is comparatively poorly explored. Here, we provide a comprehensive summary of the activities of natural products (and their derivatives) of plant and microbial origins against sexual stages of parasites and the mosquito vector. We identify the prevailing challenges and opportunities and suggest how these can be mitigated and/or exploited in an endeavor to expedite transmission-blocking drug discovery efforts from natural products.
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ISSN:1424-8247
1424-8247
DOI:10.3390/ph13090251